Life and Times of Alexander I.: Emperor of All the Russians

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noMnu
NAPOLEON COLLECTION

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WnUAM L. FISH

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PBKSDVTKD BT

JOHN A. ROEBLIN6

OF BBBNAR08VILLB, NSW IBBSKT

JUNE 11, 1932

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

ALEXANDER I.

EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS.

LIFE AND TIMES iC^ '^n

OF

ALEXANDER I

EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS.

BY

C. JOYNEVILLE.

" My rival in glory and power." — ^Napolbon, loq.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON :

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET STRAND.

1875.

iAU rigktt qf TranaleUkm and lieprodttctwn are referred.]

^

HARVARD COllEGC LIBRAmr

WILUAM L FISH

NAPOLEON COLLECTION

QIFT OF JOHN A. ROEBUNa

JUNE 11, 1932

LONDOH:
BAVILIs XQWARD8 ARD 00., PRIHTBRS,- CRARDOS STRSKT,

COVBHI GARDEH.

CONTENTS

/

OP

THE THIRD VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

THE CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE, AND CAPTURE OF |>ARIS.

Napoleon and his Allies, 1. Alexander's Address to his Army, 4.
Wellington, 4. Peace Negotiations, 6. Alexander Imparts his
Polish Scheme to Sir C. Stewart, 7. Battle of La Rothi^re, 9.
Schwartzenberg's Inactivity, 9. Battle of Champaubert, 11,
Alexander's Memoir, 15. Treaty of Chanmont, 19. Battle of
Craonne, 20. Battle of Arcis, 23. Battle of F^re-Champdnoise, 25
Alexander's Cavalry Charge, 26. March on Paris, 27. Its De-
fence, 28. Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 35. Alexander's Popu-
larity, 38. His Conference with the French Ministers, 39.
Caulaincourt and Alexander, 46. Napoleon is Deposed, 53. His
Journey to Elba, 58.

CHAPTER II.

ALEXANDER IN PARIS AND LONDON.

Flight of the Bonapartes, 63. Alexander and Bernadotte, 64. Maria
Louisa, 65. Josephine, 66. A Dinner Party at Malmaison, 68.
The Queen of Westphalia, 69. Madame Junot, 70. The Bourbons
return, 73. Alexander visits Louis, 74. Presses a Charter upon
him, 76. The Treaty of Peace, 81. Kosciusko, 83. Hortense, 84.
The Empress Elizabeth at Baden, 85. Lafayette, 89. Alexander's
Reception at the Institute, 91. Invited to England, 93. The

vi Contents.

Princess Charlotte, 93. The Grand Duchess Catherine, 94.
Nicholas, 95. Alexander lands at Dover, 96. Arrives in London,
97. Goes to Oxford, &c., 99. His Reflections on his Visit, 102.
His Portraits, 103. The Hague, 104. Zaandam, 104. Meets
the Empress at Bruchsal, 104. He refuses the Honours offered
to him at St. Petersburg, 108. HisLev^e, 109. Eostopchine and
Romanzov retire, 112. Humboldt, 112. Correspondence, 114.
Alexander visits Moscow, Vilna, &c., 118. America, 120.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

Assembly of Sovereigns and Statesmen, 121. The Empress Elizabeth,
&c., 122. Conference, 123. Alexander's Irritation, 128. His
Accident, 126. He visits Pesth, 128. Sees Talleyrand, Castle-
reagh, and Metternich, 128. His Correspondence about Poland,
132. Excessive Warmth, 136. Alexander's Illness, 137. Harden-
berg's Disclosures, 150. Alexander challenges Metternich, 150.
Explanation, 151. The Secret Alliance, 153. Napoleon's re-
turn from Elba, 161. Preparations for another War, 167.

CHAPTER IV.
Alexander's second campaign in France.

Madame de Krudener, 171. She reproves Alexander, 177. The
Battle of Waterloo, 178. The Allies march on Paris, 181.
Napoleon's Exile, 182. Louis visits Alexander, 186. English
Correspondence, 187. Alexander prevents the Dismemberment of
France, 188. The Grand Duchess Anna, 189. Madame de
Krudener comes to Paris, 197. A Great Review, 201. The Holy
Alliance, 203. La Harpe and Napoleon's opinion of it, 208.
Alexander leaves France, 210. Anxiety in Russia for his re-
turn, 212.

/\

Contents. vii

CHAPTER V.

RUSSIA AT PEACE.

Poland, 217. Alexander's return to Russia, 219. The Jesuits, 223.
The Russian Dissenters, 225. The Persian Ambassador, 227.
Marriages of Alexander's Sisters, 228. Finances, 229. The
Military Colonies, 233. The Press, 237. Alexander goes to
Moscow and Warsaw, 239. De Maistre, 242. The new Bank,
245. Nicholas's Marriage, 246. The Court winters at Moscow,
247. Alexander's journej to the Crimea, 251. Birth of his
Nephew (Alexander II.), 252. King of Prussia's visit, 253.
Austrian Memoir on the state of Russia, 255.

CHAPTER VI.

CONSPIRACIES AND REVOLUTIONS.

Congress of Aix-la Chapelle, 266. Conspiracy to Assassinate Alex-
ander, 267. Wellington's Precautions, 268. The Allies evacuate
France, 270. Alexander visits Louis XYIIL, 275. Secret
Societies in Russia, 278. Illness of the Empress, 279. Alex-
ander visits Archangel, 281. His conversation with Constantine,
281. And with Nicholas, 282. Pushkin's Poem, 285. Speranski,
287. Poland, 288. Insurrections in Spain and Italy, 292. Dis-
turbances in Poland, 293. Jesuits banished, 294. Stormy Session
of the Warsaw Diet, 296. Congress of Troppau, 298. Revolt,
299. Napoleon's Death, 301. The Greek Revolution, 302.^

CHAPTER VII.

THE LAST TE*ARS OF ALEXANDER'S REION.

The Greeks, 310. Madame de Krudener, 311. Photi, 312. Russian
Conspirators, 314. Alexander's Solitary Life, 315. The Free-
masons, 326. Spanish Revolution, 327. Congress of Yerona, 327.
Wellington and Chateaubriand, 330. The Turkish Question, 331.

viii Contents.

Speech in the House of Gommonsi 337. Rostopchine on France,
340. Alexander's Illness and Troubles, 341. Inundation of the
Neva, 345. Ultimatum to Turkey, 346. Alexander's care for
Education, 349. Visits Warsaw, 349. Talks of Abdicating, 350.
Leaves St Petersburg for Taganrog, 351. Tour in the Crimea,
353. lUness, 356. Death, 361. Funeral, 366. Death .of the
Empress, 369.

LIFE AND TIMES

OF

ALEXANDER I.,

EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS.

CHAPTER L
1814.

THE CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND CAPTURE OF PARIS.

JBTAT. 86.

THE battle of Leipsic caused a great sensation throughout
every part of Europe still in any way connected with
France ; and Napoleon^s flight across the Rhine convinced his
partisans that^ although he still declared he had gained a suc-
cession of victories^ their result bore all the consequences of a
decisive defeat. The appearance of an Austrian army in the
north of Italy increased the agitation in that country^ and
Murat perceived that to keep his throne he must make peace
with the Allies. He had been very favourably impressed by
the Russians^ and on his return to Naples appeared more than
once at a fSte with all his courtiers dressed as Cossacks.
Added to this growing predilection^ he smarted under the in-
sults heaped on him by Napoleon^ who had no right to
complain of ingratitude from those Sovereigns who turned
against him ; for^ in the first place^ they had fully earned the
honours he had bestowed^ not as gifts^ but as recompenses^ and
often bribes ; and^ in the second^ he had already repaid himself
by the enjoyment of humiliating these new-made kings^ and
constantly reminding them that their power and dignities were
only derived from his. The insolence which even the Kings
of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg supported must have made them

VOL. III. B

Tlie Campaign in France and

often writhe in their chains ; and petty slights^ such as dining
-with his hat on in their presence, while they were of course
uncovered, or keeping them waiting an hour in a carriage in
the midst of a drive, while he transacted some trivial business that
just occurred to him, were not at all unfrequent. He certainly
understood coarse human nature as represented in the lower
ranks, but not human nature when it has acquired any real
refinement. His injustice towards his otBcers — ^picking out
some innocent but uninfluential man for especial reprobation,
when it was necessary, as he said, to find a scapegoat; or
marking out another for especial honours, or favour, merely
because he was wealthy ; and he was resolved (he said) to have
only rich and magnificent persons about his Court — was fast
raising up enemies, even among the military. The title he
bestowed on Ney of the *' bravest of the brave,^' excited
jealousy. " We are all brave,'' said a French oflicer ; " the
quality has no degree of comparison ; a man may be foolhardy,
but he cannot be more than brave/'

In December Murat returned to Italy, and there wrote
urging Napoleon to make peace, or to proclaim the unity and
independence of Italy, as the only means of preserving her as
an ally to France. " If you put at my disposal," he wrote,
" the provinces beyond the Po, I will engage that the Austrians
shall never cross the Adige." He added, that without those
provinces he dare not bring an army to assist France, leaving
between himself and his own kingdom a district ready to rise
for Austria and Sardinia. Napoleon sent him no answer, but
permitted the Pope to return, whereupon Murat took posses-
sion of Rome; the French garrison retiring into St. Angelo.
He proclaimed to his soldiers it was '^ no longer possible to
give credit to the illusion that Napoleon fought for the peace
and happiness of France. There are but two banners in
Europe — Religion, Morality, Justice, Law, Peace, and Happi-
ness on one side ; on the other. Persecution, Artifice, Violence,
Tyranny, War, and mourning to all nations.'' He ended by
signing a treaty of peace with the Allies, January 10th, 1813.

The Grand Army crossed the Rhine in nine columns ; the
Austrian contingent imder Schwartzenberg on December 20th,
at Schaffhausen, whence it wended its way through Swit-
zerland ; and Alexander^ with the last of the Russian reserves.

Capture of Paris.

at Basle, on January 13th, 1814. It is very difficult to arrive
at an exact estimate of their forces, because each division tried
to swell its numbers, to increase its own importance.* Napo-
leon understated his own army as much after his abdication as
he overstated it when preparing for the defence of France ;
but, including the garrisons, the best authorities count his
forces on the French side of the Rhine as amounting to
305,700 men. In Holland and the Netherlands he had still
70,000 in garrison, 50,000 under Beauharnais in the north of
Italy, and 70,500 in the German fortresses of Hamburg,
Magdeburg, and Erfurt.

The Allied Army of the North did not at this period enter
France. The Silesian army consisted of 54,460 Russian troops,
88,931 Prussian, and 20,000 German, on paper; but some de-
duction must be allowed for exaggeration ; though all accounts
agree that the Russians formed the largest proportion of this
zealous force. Of the Grand Army, the Austrians were set
down on paper 2A 130,000, but were very much below that
standard ; and, in fact, where in winter could such enormous
forces have been fed so far from their own countries, and after
a year and a half of war ? The Russians in this army were
said to number 51,550, which, from the losses they sustained,
and the imposing force with which they still entered Paris^
must have been nearer the truth. The Prussians, Germans,
and Cossacks were rated at about 60,000 more ; but the con-
tingent of the Elector of Hesse, 24,000 strong, was not ready
till the end of March,t and a strong reserve remained in
Germany. Altogether, the Russian forces engaged in garrison
duty in Germany and Holland as partisan corps, and in
France, are said to have numbered 278,000.

The plan now proposed in the invasion was the same
Alexander pressed on his allies after Leipsic, and the armies
entering France from the north-east and south were intended
to close on Paris. As he crossed the French boundary, he
addressed his soldiers, and probably for the first time in the
course of history, a Sovereign leading an army against an

• Wilson says one division of only 9000 drew rations and oonnted its
strenj<th at 36,000.

f It was promised contingents like this which swelled the amount on
paper so far above the real truth.

b2

I^e Campaign in Frande and

enemy reminded them of their duties as Christians, and ex-
horted them to remember mercy. " Warriors ! your valour
and perseverance have brought you from the Oka to the Rhine.
"We are about to enter the country with which we are waging
a sanguinary and obstinate war. We have saved and glorified
our native land^ and restored freedom and independence to
Europe. It remains but to crown this great achievement with
the long desired peace, to restore to every State its own inde-
pendent laws and government, and religion, arts, science,
and commerce, for the general welfare of the people. This is
our object, and not the continuance of war and destruction.
The enemy, entering our empire, brought on us great evils,
but suffered for it an awful punishment. Let us not take ex-
ample from them ; inhumanity and ferocity cannot be ^pleasing
in the eyes of a merciful God. Let us forget their deeds, and
render them, not vengeance and hatred, but friendship, and a
hand stretched out for peace. Such is the lesson taught by
our holy faith. Divine lips have pronounced the command,
' Love your enemies ; do good to them that hate you.'
Warriors I I trust that by your moderation in the enemy's
country, you will conquer as much by generosity as by arms ;
and uniting the valour of the soldier against the armed with
the charity of the Christian towards the unarmed, you will
crown your exploits by keeping stainless your well-earned re-
putation of a brave and moral people.^'

When Napoleon heard of the invasion, he said if he could
have gained two months the enemy should not have crossed
the Rhine. On January 23rd, being Sunday, he heard mass,
and held a levee to receive the principal officers of the national
guards. He then went through a scene he had previously
rehearsed with a professional actor; standing in an attitude,
and holding his wife and child by the hand, solemnly com-
mended them to their care. On the 25th he parted from
the Empress and her son for ever, leaving his brother Joseph
to act as Lieutenant of the Empire, and set out to join the
head-quarters of his army at Ch&lons-sur-Marne.

In the mean time Wellington's advance from Spain seemed
slow in comparison with the rapid movements of the Allies. He
put his army into winter quarters at Oleron and San Juan de
Luz, a small seaport town on the frontier; and, as a French

Capture of Paris.

commissaire from Bayonne admitted^ his policy and the good
discipline he maintained did the Imperial cause more honour
than ten battles. '^ Every peasant wishes to be under his pro-
tection/' The Duke wrote^ January 14thy from San Juan de
Lujj : " We have found the French people exactly what we
might expect (not from the lying accounts in the French news-
papers^ copied into all others of the worlds and believed by
everybody^ notwithstanding the internal sense of every man of
their falsehood^ but) from what we know of the government of
Napoleon, and the oppression of all descriptions under which
his subjects have laboured. It is not easy to describe the
detestation of this man. What do you think of the French
people running into our posts for protection from the French
troops^ with their bundles on their heads, and their beds^ as
you recollect to have seen the people of Portugal and of
Spain V Even Count Beugnot owns that the French army of
the north pillaged the neighbourhood of LUle as if it had been
a conquered country.*

^^ There was a peace party/' says Muffling, ^' always working
in the camp of the Allies/' and the English Government, who
refused to accept the terms of peace offered in 1806, or to
treat with Napoleon after Tilsit and Erfurt, preferring to con-*
tinue a war productive of the greatest misery to the Continent
and of great loss to the British trade, was now induced, by
Metternich's representations, to take alarm when they saw the
French Empire almost prostrate at the feet of Russia, and
wished to avert the catastrophe which for years it was the
chief aim of the British policy to effect. Russia, led on by an
able and energetic Sovereign, seemed more formidable in the
eyes of Austrii^ Sweden, and England than France under
the rule of even Napoleon. Without reflecting that Napoleon
would infallibly, and perhaps in self-defence, break any treaty
limiting his power, as soon as he was in a position to do so,
and that France possessed greater capabilities of repairing her
losses than perhaps any country in Europe, they now tried to
preserve the ancient boundaries of France, and proposed an

* It IB a strong proof of the comparatiyely small damage which the
Allies perpetrated in France, that the French loudly complained that some
Prussians, for mischief, cut^down a crocodile in the museum at Brienne, and
it broke some glass cases in its fall ; yet forty years later we see the
French crashing every cariosity in the moseom of Kertch.

6 Uie Campaign in France and

_ |_ LI . —II - T '

offer of the same terms of peace refused by the Allies before
Leipsic. In the course of European history no army had ever
marched so far in one year as the victorious Russian legions
vhich now crossed the borders of the Rhine^ for the homes of
many of them lay on the Ural and the Caspian. Their em-
pire had certainly made unprecedented efforts to carry on the
campaign; but still the success of those efforts^ and the victories
achieved one thousand miles from its own frontiers^ was a
proof that it was not the cold alone which expelled Napoleon^s
armies firom Russia. Her allies reflected that a Power so
difficult to assail^ and so rapidly gaining strength in offensive
warfare, would be left unbalanced in Europe. But their policy,
swayed alternately by the fear of France and Russia, under-
went several oscillations before it finally agreed to the general
peace.

The conference was transferred from Frankfort to Ch&tillon
as the Allies continued their march,* and was opened February
3rd; Razoumovski acting for Russia, Count Stadion for Aus«*
tria, Baron Humboldt for Prussia, and Lord Aberdeen, Lord
Cathcart, and Sir Charles Stewart for England; Lord Aber-
deen being unable to speak French, and guided entirely by
Metternich. Eugene Beauhamais also sent a representative to
support his interests in Italy.

Castlereagh first repaired to Basle to meet the Sovereigns,
but found only Francis and the King of Prussia, Alexander
having left with the armies, of whose rapid mai*ch and bold
entrance into France in the depths of winter he writes in great
praise. The Austrian Emperor's conversation showed him his
fear of Russia; and Lord Bathurst afterwards said he had
prevented a quarrel between Francis and the Czar.

Louis XVIII. wrote to Alexander in 1813, as if to remind
him of his own claim to the throne of France, and the Comte
d'Artois landed at Rotterdam February 2nd, and followed the
Czar through Basle, Ve8oul,t and Langres to Troyes. The
Due d^Angoul^me joined Wellington in Spain, and the Due
de Berri sailed for Jersey, in case of a rising in Brittany.

• Sir 0. Stewart, writing January, 1814, says that Alexander wishes to
inarch direct on Paris, and to dethrone Napoleon, before he makes peace.

t Alexander slept in his mother's old home at Montb^liard on January
17th, and at Yesoul on the 18th.

Capture of Paris.

Schwartzenberg was proceeding by slow marches through Swit-
zerland; wishing to remain within reach of Lombardy^ and to
preserve the.Austrian armies entire^ to give them more influence
over the terms of peace. But Russia had already done far
more than her share in the war. Blucher's vanguard was
entirely composed of her troops^ led by Sacken^ Sherbatov^
and Fahlen^ who captured Ligny, St. Diziers, Nancy, and
Brienne as early as January 29th, and Napoleon^s attention
was first directed to this division when he took the field
January 27th.

The English and Austrian statesmen seem to have thought
Alexander would be sufficiently repaid for his sacrifices by the
mere fame of a conqueror, and would not even fulfil the im-
perative duty of securing his frontiers from a possible repetition
of the invasion of 1812. That invasion showed him that so
long as Poland either enjoyed independence under her old
republican government, or under the protection of Saxony,
France, Austria, or Prussia, she might at any moment be
made the head-quarters of a war against Russia, who had often
felt the need of a natural frontier between Poland and
Moscow. England had furnished large sums of money during
the war, but what were her losses, either in men or material,
compared with those of Russia ? And she had rewarded herself
by an immense booty on the sea, and rich colonies, which she
had no idea of restoring entire to either France, Holland,
Denmark, Portugal, or the knights of St. John. Her lands
had not been pillaged by an invading hand ; and her people
had enjoyed as much tr&nquillity in their island home during p
the long war as if in the midst of the most profound peace. .
The destinies of Antwerp and Belgium were to be made sub-
ordinate to her safety ; but the bravery of her sons was to be
enough to protect Russia against the obvious ill-will of all
Europe. Alexander had to wage nearly as hard a warfare
with the diplomatists as with the French. He had mentioned
the subject to Metternich, who, as usual, acquiesced, and then
urged the English to oppose it. Frederick and Hardenberg
were also acquainted with it, when he held an unofficial con-
versation with Sir Charles Stewart (February, 1814), who
reported that he " dwelt at great length on the immense sacri-
fices of Russia/' and how necessary it was for him on the eve

8 The Campaign in France and

of a settlement of Europe to look to the permanent interests
of his own empire. ^' Every principle of justice and right
called upon him to restore such a constitution ,to Poland as
would secure the happiness of so fine and so great a people ;'*
but if he gave up seven million of his subjects in the Polish
provinces without a sulBScient guarantee to Russia for the
advantage of the measure^ it would be more than his crown
was worth. The union of these provinces with the Duchy of
Warsaw^ under such a constitutional administration as Russia
would name^ might produce the happiest efiects. He thought
Europe ought to depend on his character. " I remarked, that
Europe could not always ensure an Alexander on the throne.'^
He answered that Constantine shared his sentiments entirely,
as well as his two youngest brothers. He believed the pro-
posal he had started, and the mode in which he viewed it, was
seen by Austria in the same light ; as he had a very long con-
versation with Metternich a day or two since, in which he
opened the whole of his plan, and the prince ^ n'avait rien
contre,' or words to this purpose.^^ Sir Charles expressed
surprise, and assured him Metternich held a very different
language to the English. " I never could suppose he would
leave to us the task of opposing his Imperial Majesty's views
alone, in case they did not meet with general concurrence,
when they were of so much more vital interest to Austria and
Prussia. His Imperial Majesty next alluded, rather in a men-
acing manner, to his power of taking military occupation of
Poland, and seemed to be certain of obtaining his end ; and I
doubted much, from the firm and positive manner in which he
expressed himself, whether he would ever be diverted from the
purpose.*'

Alexander marched with his guards to Trannes, according
to the plan by which he was to join Sacken's division, while
Schwartzenberg loitered along ;* though a rapid movement of
the Grand Army might have completed the war in a fortnight.
^ He seemed anxious to give Napoleon the time required to
bring up his recruits. Alexander intended to march direct on
Eontainebleau, but Napoleon was at the head of 70,000 men,

* Montenegro had just caused some discord. Her chief had appealed
to Russia to garrison Gattaro, and refused it to Austria, to both Austria
and England^ discontent

Capture of Paris. 9

threatening Blucher, who required his support as the Austrians
remained inert. *'I tremble/^ wrote Napoleon to Joseph,
February 13th, 1814, 'Meat those rascally Russians should
retaliate by setting fire to Fontainebleau/^ The Allies quitted
Brienne on Napoleon's advance, but defeated him at La
Bothiere, where eighty pieces of cannon and 4000 French
prisoners were captured, and 5000 killed and wounded. The
Kussians and Prussians lost nearly 6000 in killed and
wounded ; " the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia
were present,'' writes Sir Charles Stewart, " and by their
heroic conduct infused life and vigour into all the operations."
The French peasants were not left passive by their own
Government, and measures being taken to arm them,
Schwartzenberg issued a general order to treat all natives
found with arms as prisoners.

Schwartzenberg's arrangements during this battle were, as
General Mitchell says, " the most extraordinary we have yet
found recorded in military history. He had an army of at
least 130,000 men (on paper), perfectly disposable and ready
in hand; but instead of using them to crush an adversary
close in his. front, he deputes a subordinate to attack the
enemy with half that number, and gratifies the other half of
the army with the display of a brilliant military spectacle !
But if the orders were extraordinary they were at least boldly
executed." Alexander ordered the allied troops to wear a
white band on their left arms, to distinguish them from the
enemy; as the uniforms of the various contingents were. not
yet familiar to each other, and the Germans wore clothes
closely resembling the French. He decided the fate of the
battle by bringing up the grenadiers of Little Russia and
Astrakhan to support Blucher at a moment when the Field-
Marshal was hard pressed by Napoleon in person ; and the
French had driven the Allies from La Rothiere, which the
Russians, unsupported by artillery, carried once more at the
point of the bayonet. «

The defeated army retreated in great confusion upon Troyes,
a town on the left bank of the Seine, eighty-eight miles from
Paris, and Napoleon at St. Helena said he had then serious
thoughts of resigning his crown. It is certain this victory
might have brought the Allies on to Paris at once if they had

1 Tlie Campaic/n in France and

followed it up with rapidity ; but Schwartzenberg had secret
orders on no account to cross the Seine. As King Leopold
writes : *' Political difficulties prevented its going to Paris,
which might easily have been done /'* and though Alexander
tried to conciliate him, he could not be induced to proceed.
The Czar followed the retiring enemy with the Bavarian corps,
and attacked the rear-guard under Marmont, left to cover
Napoleon's retreat. He was exposed as at La Rothiere in the
thickest of the fight ; but a heavy snow-storm suspending it,
Marmont knowing, the ground, contrived to cross the Seine.
" I wished,'^ wrote Napoleon to Joseph, February 6th, from
Troyes, ^' to attack Bar-sur- Seine to-morrow, in order to beat the
Emperor Alexander, Mho seems to have made false dispositions,
but I sacrificed everything to the necessity of covering Paris/'
Joseph writing, February 11th, to his brother, complained of
the disorderly conduct of the French troops, and said it was
not uncommon to hear it publicly asserted, " The enemy could
not do worse/'t Writing again on the 15th, he urges Napo-
leon to come to Paris, but the latter was bent on saving
Fontainebleau before everything else. On the 19th he says,
"The Austrians were protecting Fontainebleau, and Schwartzen-
berg's retreat from Bray prevented an attack on that town.
On the 23rd he writes again, "The enemy appears to have
given up all thought of Paris.'' On the 25th, " The Crown
Prince of Sweden is at Cologne ; send some one to make him
sensible of his folly, and persuade him to alter his conduct.''
Joseph replied, " The Prince of Sweden says he is temporizing,
to give you an opportunity of making peace." As the Princess
of Sweden was living in Paris, unable to tear herself away,
there was every opportunity for carrying on a negotiation
with him. On March llth Joseph writes to Napoleon, "I
was with the Empress when she received a letter from her
father. From what she said, he appears well disposed. It
seems he has answered your letter." It was announced

• Recollections of King Leoi>old.
t In addition to other evidence, Napoleon's own proclamation to his
soldiers, dated February 8th, 1814, shows the excesses to which the French
were addicted, even in France ; though he refused to check them tUl they
pillaged a castle near Nogent, the property of his mother. " The in-
habitants,'* he says, ** are flying on every side, and the troops, instead of
being th^ir country's defenders, are becoming its scourge."

Capture of Paris. 1 1

in the Moniteur, February 2l8t, that the Austrians had saved
Fontainebleau from being captured by the Allies.

Alexander was aware there was some understanding between
the Austrians and French^ as well as between Bernadotte and
the French ;* but he could not openly quarrel with his allies
on French territory; and if he showed them he knew it, a
quarrel was inevitable. He tried to guard against the con-
sequences, and positively refused to grant peace on the con-
ditions he offered at Frankfort, which allowed the Rhine from
Rotterdam to Basle to constitute the frontier of France.
Napoleon had delayed the negotiations beyond the stipulated
time; and as it had cost the Allies an extra amount of blood-
shed he would not now make peace unless the French territory
was reduced to its dimensions before 1792.

When the Czar entered Troyes a royalist deputation waited
on him, headed by the Marquis Widranges and M. Gonalt,
wearing the cross of St. Louis and the white cockade, for-
bidden in the empire unde)r pain of death. They requested
him to re-establish the Bourbons. " Gentlemen,^* he replied,
" 1 receive you with pleasure. I wish well to your cause ;
but your proceedings are rather premature. The chances of
war are uncertain, and I should be grieved to see brave men
like you compromised or sacrificed. We do not come our-
selves to give a king to France ; we desire to know its wishes,
and to leave it to declare itself.^' " But it will never declare
itself as long as it is under the knife," replied the Marquis ;
" never so long as Bonaparte rules in France will Europe be
tranquil.'' '' It is for that reason,'' replied Alexander, ^^ the
first thing we must think of is to beat him." The same
day, owing to Schwartzen berg's inertness, Blucher's force was
surrounded at Champanbert. " You see," he exclaimed in
the midst of the battle, "how my brave Russians fight."
While retreating they formed squares as coolly as if at a
review, and resisted every effort of the French cuirassiers,
animated by Napoleon's presence, to penetrate their ranks.
Their loss was great, but not a Russian was taken prisoner.

* Sir Charles Stewart writes on the 28th to Sir G. Jackson, with regard
to a proclamation Bernadotte had addressed to the French : " What a
weak wretch Charles John mnst be not to see that this very declaration
on his part lets the cat all out of the bag T'

12 IJie Campaign in France and

though 2500 Prussians were captured. Altogether Blucher
missed 6000, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, out of his force,
consisting of 20,000 men ; but he reached Ch&lons in safety,
while Napoleon sent a magnified account of this victory to
Paris, and diffused fresh hopes of triumph throughout the
country, which was much depressed.

Schwartzenberg remained resting his army at Troyes, till
prevailed on by Alexander to put his columns in motion ; and
satisfied that Napoleon with his main army was following
Blucher, and only a small portion of the enemy remained in
front, he raised his camp February 11th, and advanced to
Nogent, while the Russians, the Prince of Wiirtemberg, and
Bianchi crossed the Seine, and the Cossacks and Russian irre-
gulars made themselves masters of the palace and forest of
Fontainebleau and Montai^gis ; Nemours was occupied by
Platof, and the Russian general, Seslavin, pushed his outposts
to the gates of Orleans. *' The Emperor of Russia," writes
MufBing, ^' had done his utmost to infuse activity into the
Grand Army, and to undertake offensive operations on Bona«
parte's rear, foreseeing the consequences of the enemy's march.
But the Grand Army lost time behind the Seine, being too
much scattered. In addition to this, the Austrian army in the
neighbourhood of Lyons desired reinforcements, and it was re-
solved to send Colloredo^s corps there.^' True to the system
he had hitherto pursued, Schwartzenberg contented himself
with his forward march, and withholding all the troops under
his immediate control, left the Bavarians under Wrede, and
the Russians under Pahlen and Wittgenstein, to bear the whole
weight of the enemy ; when, on hearing the Grand Army was
in movement, it retraced its steps to cover Paris. In this
arrangement the effect of MetternicVs tortuous diplomacy was
easily discerned ; the Russians and the Bavarians were the two
sovereignties he regarded as Austria's greatest enemies; for
the Bavarians held a portion of the Austrian territory, which
in the event of a general peace he meant to be restored. It
was essential her army should be weakened or annihilated, in
which case she would carry no weight in the councils of
Europe. According to the French accounts, not a Bavarian
would have escaped if the French general, Heritier, had done
his duty; and Pahlen and Wittgenstein, commanding 3000

Capture of Paris. 1 3

infantry and 1800 horse^ were left to maintain the left bank
of the Seine against the newly arrived army from Spain, and
after a heroic resistance lost 1359 men.^ Pahlen was so cast
down by this defeat, although he had only carried out
Schwartzenberg^s orders in remaining on the spot where he was
attacked, that he kept carefully out of Alexander's way. The
Czar met him in one of the combats before Paris, and said to
him, " You think I am angry with you, but I know you were
not in fault/' The Austrian commander gave this defeat as a
reason for ordering an immediate retreat ; and at a council of
war held on the 17th, Alexander alone of all the generals
urged a rapid advance. He was so greatly annoyed by
Schwartzenberg's conduct, and was becoming so convinced that
if he was permitted to retain the command the campaign
could never end favourably, that he raised no further objec-
tion to the acceptance of Napoleon's terms. At four a.m. he
visited Schwartzenberg in his bed, and telling him an open
enemy was better than a half-hearted ally, he said he saw the
Austrian Government were resolved, cost what it might, to
support Napoleon. He was therefore willing to accept the
basis of a peace, which might at least free him from an alliance
worse than useless to the cause of Europe ; without doubt the
war would be renewed ; for though Napoleon might agree to
their terms for the sake of freeing his country from invaders,
he would never adhere to them as soon as the danger was
past ; but Russia and Prussia would enter on a new campaign
in a better position, knowing clearly who were their friends
and who their enemies. The half of the Austrian army, sepa-
rated from the main body to march on Lyons, under pretence
of keeping open the communications with Italy, had allowed
the French to intercept these communications and renew their

* A Rassian general, named Polteratsky, was taken prisoner and brooght
before Napoleon, who said to him, " I now tell yon, ttiat as I have routed
yon to-day I shall annihilate Sacken to-morrow ; on Thursday the whole
of Wittgenstein's advanced guard will be disposed of. On Fnday I shall

§ive Blucher a blow from which he will never recover, and I then hope to
ictate peace to Alexander on the Vistula. Your old fox Kutnzov de-
ceived me by his march on our flank ; the burning of Moscow was a bar-
barous act — it was the work of the Russians. I took Berlin, Madrid, and
Vienna, and no such thing happened.*' " The Russians," replied Pol-
teratsky, ** do not repent of that sacrifice, and are delighted with its
results. " Leave the room, sir," replied the Emperor, stamping %vith his
foot. — ^Alison's History of £urope, cnap. Ixzzy.

14 Tlie Campaign in France and

own with fieauharnais ; and now, with a force which, if con-
centrated, far exceeded the French, Schwartzenberg demanded
an armistice from Napoleon, who refused it, sending word to
his plenipotentiary at the Congress of Ch&tillon that he with-
drew his powers, which had only been granted to gain time
and avoid a battle, for he hoped to annihilate the allied army
before it recrossed the Ehine, and that he was to sign no peace.

Blucher sent an aide-de-camp to Schwartzenberg, asking to
give battle alone, the Grand Army merely forming his reserve
rather than retreat ; but he was answered that a retreat was
already prepared. The officer asked if the Sovereigns whose
armies Blucher commanded had expressly ordered his division
to retreat, and whether they had sent orders to this effect, and
he heard that such was not the case. *' Many of his suite/'
says Muffling, " believed Blucher was intentionally left in the
lurch, to weaken him, so that he should not be able to form
any opposition against peace/'

In the mean while Bernadotte, at the Czar's demand, left
the Danish frontier and proceeded as far as Cologne ; but the
Russian and Prussian contingents of the Army of the North
obeyed more resolute orders than those of the Crown Prince,
and leaving a blockade round Antwerp, proceeded by Avesnes
to Laon. Avesnes surrendered to Czernichef, who also attacked
and captured the important town of Soissons ; but being too
weak to spare a garrison to hold it, was obliged to quit it the
next day, and join his countrymen at Rheims, whence a de-
tached portion of Blucher's army proceeded to reinforce their
commander at ChAlons.

The retreat was decided in a second council of war at Ti*oyes
on the 23rd, though Alexander protested against it till peace
was actually declared, and even advocated another battle at
once. But Schwarztenberg was resolved to show Napoleon by
deed as well as word that he was his friend; and Prince
Lichtenstein, the beare? of his proposal for an armistice,
carried to Napoleon a letter from Francis in answer to one
received six days before. This letter contained the most con-
ciliatory expressions, saying that the plans of the Allies were
seriously deranged, and that in the rapidity and force of his
strokes the Emperor recognized the great character of his son-
in-law. Napoleon asked Lichtenstein if the report were true,

Capture of Paris. 15

that the Sorereigas meant to dethrone him and place the
Bourbons on the throne^ and Lichtenstein warmly contradicted
it. As Napoleon declined an armistice, and Schwartzenberg
was still resolved to retreat^ Alexander directed the Russian
division under Vinzingerode to pay no attention to any inti-
mation he might receive of a suspension of hostilities unless it
came from himself; and desired Blucher to give him the
details of his plan, in case Scliwartzenberg separated from him,
and he marched alone with the Russians and Prussians on
Paris. The old man wrote out on a torn piece of paper his
reasons for objecting to the retreat. " Most heartily/^ he
continued, " do I thank your Majesty for your permission to
resume the offensive ; I flatter myself with hopes of success, if
your Majesty will give positive orders to Generals Vinzinge-
rode and fiulow to place themselves under my command.
Joined by them I shall march on Paris, fearing neither Napo-
leon nor his marshals should they come to meet me.''

"Alexander,'' writes Muffling, "had formed a sagacious
judgment of Napoleon's situation and that of the Allies, and
he was the rock round which all gathered, to which every one
dung who comprehended the necessity of continuing the war
and dethroning Bonaparte. To him we owe much, perhaps
all. Without his firm will his armies would not have borne
what they did, and acted with readiness ; for there were many
superior and inferior officers belonging to them who longed
for peace." On February 15 th the Czar presented a memoir of
his opinions to the Allied Sovereigns, and the strong view ex>
pressed in it on the dethronement of Napoleon is believed to
have determined the Austrians to proceed no further in the
invasion of France. " Victory," he said, " having brought us
to Frankfort, the Allies offered to France conditions of peace
proportionate to the successes then obtained; at that period
these conditions might have been called the object of the
war. I strongly opposed the proposal to negotiate then ; not
because I did not desire peace, but because I thought time
would offer us more favourable opportunities when we had
proved our superiority to the enemy. All are now convinced
of the truth of my arguments, for to it we are indebted for
the vast difference between the terms offered at Frankfort and at
Chfttillon — ^that is^the restoration by France of territories without

16 Tlie Campaign in France and

which Germany and Italy would be lost on the first offensive
movement. The destruction of the enemy^s political power
is not the grand aim of the efforts left to make ; but it may
become so^ if the fortune of war^ the example of Paris^ and
the plain inclination of the provinces give the Allies the
possibility of proclaiming it. I do not share the opinion of
the Allies on the greater or less degree of importance at-
tached by them to the dethronement of Napoleon, if that
measure can be justified on grounds of wisdom. On the
contrary^ I should consider it as the completion of the de-
liverance of Europe; as the brightest possible example of
justice and morality, and the happiest event for Prance herself,
whose internal condition must always influence the peace of
her neighbours. Nobody is more convinced than I am of the
inconstancy of fortune in war ; yet I do not consider a partial
failure^ or even tli6 loss of a battle^ as a misfortune which
should in one day deprive us of the fruit of our victories;
and I feel sure that the skill of our generals^ the valour of
our troops, our superiority in cavalry, the reinforcements
following us, and public opinion would never allow us to fall
so low as some seem to apprehend. I am not averse to con-
tinuing the negotiations at Ch&tillon, or giving Caulaincourt
the explanations he desires regarding the future of Europe,
provided France returned to her old frontiers. As to the
armistice requested in the letter to Prince Mettemich,'' (this
was written before Schwartzenberg asked for one himself,) *' it
is contrary to the existing usages of negotiations, and only
advantageous to the enemy. I am as much convinced as
ever of the probability of success if the Allies keep to the
views and obligations which have guided them so far with
reference to their grand object, the destruction of the enemy's
armies. With a good understanding among themselves their
success will be complete, and checks will be easily borne. I
do not think the time has arrived for us to stop short ; and I
trust that, as in former conjunctures, new events will show us
when it is come.*'*

On February 25th the Allies held another stormy council-
of-war, at Bar-sur-Aube, in the house of General Knesebeck.
It was attended by the three Sovereigns, Volkonski, Diebitch,

* Danilevski

Capture of Paris. 17

Nesselrode^ Schwartzenberg^ Mettemich, Hardenberg^ Castle-
reaghj and Radetzky. Alexander was tho^ first to speak. He
advocated more vigour in the movements of the army, and
said he should authorize Blueher to recommence the offensive
in spite of the armistice Schwartzenberg had thought fit to
conclude, and which did not extend beyond the Grand Army ;
but that Blueher must be reinforced by the Russian and
Prussian divisions under Vinzingerode, Voronzov, and Bulow —
the first being still in Flanders^ bnt close to the French
frontier, and the two last in the neighbourhood of Laon.
Schwartzenberg said it was impossible ta withdraw them from
the Army of the North without Bemadotte's consent; and
that consent would never be given if they were placed under
the command of Blueher, who was known to be the inveterate
enemy of France. Most of the council agreed with Schwart-
zenberg ; but Castlereagh, having inquired of the most expe-
rienced officers present whether this transfer was necessary to
the success of Blucher's advance, and heard that it was,
declared that the motives urged against it were insufficient to
satisfy England, who had a right to expect Sweden to do her
best to further the interests of the alliance ; and if necessary
he would withhold her monthly subsidies till the arrangement
was made. This was enough to silence Austria, who felt her
own payments in peril ; and her sovereign, minister, and general
allowed the order to be issued that Blueher should be forth-
with recruited by the corps of Bulow, Vinzingerode, and
Voronzov. Still they maintained- it would be most ad-
vantageous for both the armies to retreat. Alexander de-
cidedly opposed it; rather than consent he would separate
from the Grand Army, with the guards, grenadiers, and Witt-
genstein's corps, and march with Blueher on Paris. " I hope/'
he said to the King, '^ that your Majesty, like a faithful ally,
will not refuse to accompany me?'' "I will do so with
pleasure," said Frederick William. ^' I have long ago placed
my troops at your Majesty's disposal." Yet this separation
would have enabled Austria to make her own peace with
France ; and her army, with those of the German States, would
have retreated at once across the Jura, never to return.
Alexander wrote a pencil note to Blueher, informing him the
three corps were placed under his orders, to act with accord*

VOL. III. c

18 The Campaign in Prance and

ing to his discretion, on condition of observing certain rules
of military prudence ; and a compromise was made with the
Grand Army, which was to retire only as far as Langres^ to
join some Austrian reserves during the term of the armistice,
and then to resume operations^ Alexander and the King
marching with it as before.

Blucher was rejoiced to be relieved from Schwartzenberg,*
and lost not a day before he crossed the Aube^ and drove
Marmont in front of him as far as La Fert^-sous-Jouarre,
where the French marshal joined Mortier, pursued by the
Russians under Vinzingerode. Sacken occupied half of the
town of Meaux, on the left bank of the Marne, and the roar
of his guns was distinctly heard in Paris j where, to stimulate
the people to active resistance^ it was announced that Constan-
tine had sworn not a house should be left standing in the
French capital, to revenge Moscow ; and pictures of gigantic
Cossacks devouring little children were posted on the walls all
over the town. On the 27th Napoleon left Troyes to pursue
Blucher. He had signalized his entrance into Troyes by
causing the royalist deputy, M. Gonalt, to be shot, disregard-
ing the tears and petitions of his family, and the most influen-
tial people in the town. A placard declaring him to be a
traitor to his country was affixed to his back when he was
brought out for execution, and the Marquis de Widranges
only escaped by a timely flight to Basle.

As soon as Blucher heard of Napoleon's advance he sent a
messenger to Schwartzenberg and the allied Sovereigns ; but it
was only on the pressing demand of Alexander, and the King
alarmed for his general, that he made a retrograde movement^
and resumed the ofiensive ; though it was again not an Austrian
but the Russian and Bavarian corps of Wittgenstein and Wrede
which were put forward to oppose the enemy. After a
sanguinary battle, where Wittgenstein was severely wounded
and disabled, the Alliei drove the French out of Bar-sur-Aube,
and captured 500 prisoners. On the 1st of March, the Rus-
sian cavalry nnder Pahlen and Eugene repulsed the French at
Bar-sur-Seine without any support ; for Schwartzenberg refused
to move forward, either in this or the previous battle, to com-

• Schwartzenberg's instruction to the Prussian generals was, " Above
all, not too much zeal."

Capture of Paris. 1 9

plete the enemy's defeat^ on the plea that he must first be in-
formed of the exact position of Macdonald's division. How-
ever^ by the time Oudinot's defeated columns had rallied^ and
united with Macdonald in a strong post at La Ferte-sur-
Aube, he ventured to bring forward his head-quarters to Bar-
sur-Aube ; and after a battle at Laubressel^ in which the Allies
captured nine cannon and 1500 men^ he entered Troyes on the
5th^ but stoutly refused to advance another step during the next
fortnight. Metternich correspondence with Caulaincourt^ still
secret but very friendly accompanied him^ and carried on a
hoping to avert the capture of Paris^ which now lay at the
mercy of the Allies^ and to preserve the throne for Maria
Louisa and her son^ if Napoleon could not be induced to
recognize his position and accept his enemies' terms. The
victorious corps of Wrede and RaefiFskoi (who replaced Wittgen-
stein) were sent at his instigation to Sens and Pont-sur-Yonne^
a forward post^ indeed^ but quite out of reach of the enemy ;
Alexander's letters to Schwartzenberg^ both through Volkonski
and in his own hand^ show his impatience at this delay. ^^The
Emperor/' he writes, 1st March, 1814, " considers the advance
of the Grand Army to Sens is drawing us away from the enemy,
and it is therefore indispensable to direct all our forces to the
right towards Arcis, between that town and Vitry, and at all
events to reinforce them with the reserves which should be moved
forward." Again on the 11th : *' In consequence of intelli-
gence received from Marshal Blucher, the Emperor considers
it indispensable to move by the right between Arcis-sur-Aube
and Vitry." On the 12th, Volkonski writes : '' I hasten to
communicate to your highness the reports received from Count
St. Priest. His Majesty charges me to inform you that,
according to his opinion, it is now more necessary than ever
to act on the offensive. Henceforth your hands will be com-
pletely unbound, and you may act according to military calcu-
lation."

The last referred to the final termination of the Ch&tillon
negotiations, only resulting in a renewed bond between the
Allies, called the treaty of Chaumont ; which, in addition to
the public articles relating to the number of men to be main-
tained in the field by the three great Powers, and the English
subsidies, contained several secret engagements as to the

c2

20 The Campaign in France and

smaller States. Holland and Belgium were to be united under
the Prince of Orange ; and Spain restored to Ferdinand VII.
Nothing was said about Poland and Saxony. Alexander had
stated his intentions on these points; and his allies were
prepared to oppose him eventually^ but now thought it better
to let him exhaust his armies in doing their work. Well
might the young Englishmen who accompanied the allied
head-quarters write, ^'they were playing Bonaparte's game
ever since they crossed the Rhine/'*

Napoleon could not be convinced that he had better avail
himsdf of the proffered modes of escape, and only dreamed of
revenge. While the French army committed every excess, the
Bavarian and Rhenish troops were the most marauding division
of the Allies, having learned the system when serving under
Napoleon. He proclaimed, March 5th, that the peasants were
required to take up arms, " to scour the woods, break down
the bridges, and fall on the enemy. rEvery French citizen
taken by the enemy who shall be put to death shall be forth-
with avenged by the shooting of a prisoner fipom the enemy."
"All mayors or other public functionaries who, instead of
stimulating, strove to cool patriotic ardour, to be put to death.'*
An insurrection was raised in the Ardennes, but in the pro-
vinces occupied by the Allies there was a difficulty in provid-
ing the people with arms. This proclamation contrasts curi-
ously with Napoleon's denunciation of the patriotic peasantry
in Spain. But the Allies continued to gain ground; the
Russians retook Soissons, and re-occupied Rheims. Commanded
by Voronzov, and supported by the corps of Yorck and Sacken,
they defeated the French at Craonne ; and again at Laon, under
Blucher, when opposed by Napoleon, the Russian corps of
General Yassilchikov leading the attack. Fifty guns and the
baggage, besides 2500 prisoners, were taken by the Allies ; and
Napoleon probably owed the escape of any of his army to a
mistake of Vinzingerode, who was unacquainted with the road,
and followed one rendered impassable by the heavy rains ; and

• " I do not hy any means tliink this event," writes Sir Robert Wilson
of the capture of Paris, '* will ultimately prove beneficial to Europe. I
fear tbe ^^reat A. of the fatnre as much as the bouncing B." This feeling
was so widely prevalent, and so much influenced the military movements
of the Allies, that the length of time is not surprising which elapsed be-
fore they entered Paris afSsr crossing the Bhine.

Capture of Paris. 21

the illness of Blucher^ who on the day of the battle suffered
too much from headache and inflamed eyes to order a pursuit^
and on the 10th was obliged to keep his bed. But the honour
of Napoleon was more tarnished by his order to shoot some
Bussian prisoners than by his disorderly flight. He justified
it by no complaint of ill-treatment of the peasantry on the
part of the Russians^ or any breach of the rules of war. It
was merely puerile spite^ to avenge his own defeat.

Napoleon afterwards said the reason he refused peace at
Ch&tillon was^ because the British Government insisted on the
separation of Antwerp from France. Antwerp being opposite
to London^ entailed a heavy cost in British coast defences and
guardships while it was owned by a strong Power. However,
when the Allies, at Caulaincourt's request, added six days to
the term originally fixed as the limit within which Napoleon
was to send in his reply, and no answer was publicly returned,
they announced the negotiations at an end; but Caulaincourt
then came forward with a counter-proposition from Napoleon,
demanding Piedmont, Belgium, and the left bank of the Rhine
for France, Westphalia for Jerome, Italy for Beauharnais, and
various dukedoms and principalities for other members of his
family, which had no reference whatever to the real interests
of the French Empire. He could not therefore claim the
credit of sacrificing himself to the cause of France. Of course
these demands were rejected. Their very extravagance showed
that either he depended on the support of his friends among
the Allies, or had no intention of making peace.

Blucher is accused of separating his army too much, and
enabling Napoleon to seek out a weak detached corps and
overwhelm it ; but his activity at an important moment was
checked both by his illness and want of provisions and forage.
For nine days after Laon he kept his bed, while his generals,
longing for repose, thought it was time the Grand Army re-
lieved them. " The true object of our stay here,'^ he wrote
on the 14 th, '^ is not a military one : my only design is to give
repose to a harassed army, and as far as possible to provide it
with bread.^' " I am struggling,^' he wrote to Schwartzen-
berg on the 17th, '* with the greatest want of provisions ; the
soldiers have been for days without bread, and I am cut off
from Nancy, so have no means of procuring it.'' Napoleon

22 TAe Campaign in France and

having been forced to retreat from Laon, received information
that Rheims was. retaken and held by an isolated corps of
Russians under St. Priest. Hoping to raise the spirits of his
soldiers by a victory^ he marched on the city. The Russians
were surprised^ but still prepared for defence against a vigorous
assault ; till greatly overmatched, and their commander mor-
tally woundedj they left the town in perfect order, and re-
treated safely under cover of the darkness. The French took
three Prussian battalions in the neighbourhood, but very few
Russians, and those all wounded; and Napoleon, with his
fondness for inventing coincidences to work on the superstition
of his people, stated in his exaggerated account of the action
that St. Priest fell by a shot fired from the same gun which
killed Moreau.*

As if Fortune was still resolved to remain faithAil to the
French, Sehwartzenberg's natural slowness was increased by
an attack of the gout. His army was spread over eighty miles,
and Napoleon was marching with his forces concentrated to
cut off the weakest portion of it, when Alexander received
news of the loss of Rheims. He rode from Troyes to Arcis,
where Schwartzenbei^, like Blucher, was confined to his bed ;
and entering the antechamber with Yolkouski, on the evening
of the 1 8th, found Toll, the quartermaster-general, and asked
him '^ What they were all about ? — There was no doubt Napo-
leon was marching towards them ; did they wish to lose the
whole army ?'' " It is a great blessing," replied Toll, " your
Majesty has come ; we could not persuade the generals of that,
but now you will set all to rights.'' The Emperor at once
gave his orders, and a notice was despatched in all directions
for the various corps of the Grand Army to concentrate be-
tween Pogny and Troyes.

Napoleon was easy about Blucher, as Bernadotte, who had
arrived at Liege, was trying to keep him quiet and prevent his
emissaries from obtaining supplies in Belgium ; but the sudden
concentration of the Grand Army completely disconcerted him.
He neglected an opportunity of falling upon Wrede, and

* Even afber the battle of Eothi^re, when it was evident that Caulain*
court mnst sooner or later learn the truth, Napoleon wrote to him at
Chatillon, " Schwartzen berg's report is a piece of folly. There was no
battle. The Old Guard was not there/' &c., February 14th.

Capture of Paris. 23

marcbed straigbt to Arcis with 60^000 men^ being attacked the
next day by about 70^000 of the Allies. Alexander posted
himself, with the King and the Russian reserves^ on the heights
of Menil-la-Comtesse^ above the battlefield. He had some fear
'' lest Napoleon should be only feigning a defence^ and in the
mean time move the main body of his forces on to Brienne^ and
interrupt their communications/^ and he disposed the Russian
army to anticipate such a manoeuvre. His anxiety till this
movement was accomplished^ and during the last two days^ had
been excessive. '^ Those gentlemen/^ he said of the Austrian
generals^ "have turned half my head grey.*' The French
position was so strong as to counterbalance their inferiority in
numbers^ and they contested it for nearly two days^ during the
whole of which time Alexander and Frederick were personally
engaged^ and Napoleon was also exposed like a common soldier.
Schwartzenberg tried to spare his old ally as much as possible
in this last hour of his political existence^ by opposing the
battle being renewed on the second day till three f.m.^ leaving
Macdonald the time and opportunity to cross the river and
unite with Napoleon^ whom he intended to make use of the
delay to effect a clear retreat. However, towards night the
French retired, but instead of taking the road to Ch&lonSy
along which he had come, or to Paris, Napoleon with-
drew his army to Vitry, on the direct course towards the
Rhine.

A Cossack was the first who brought the news to Alexander.
*' The enemy is retreating,^' said the messenger, " not on Paris,
but on Moscow.^' The reason was explained when he read
some intercepted despatches forwarded straight to him by one
of his generals, containing a report from Savary to Napoleon,
of the exhausted resources in Paris, and the excited state of
the people ; and a private letter from Napoleon to Maria
Louisa, which called the late battle a victory, and told her the
enemy had posted himself to protect the march of his columns
on Brienne and Bar-sur-Aube, so he had resolved to approach
the Mame, to drive him further from Paris, and be near his
own fortified posts. " This evening," he said, " I shall be at
St. Dizier.'' These despatches reached Alexander at Dampierre
at one a.m., and as he read them Count Pahlen sent to
announce the arrival of Blucher's advanced guard at Ch&lons,

24 The Campaign in France and

■ — ■ — • — — — — ■ — ■ — ^^— ^

aBd its junction with the outposts of the Grand Army, which
placed the whole allied force between Napoleon and Paris.

'' I marched on St. Dizier/^ said Napoleon at £lba^ to the
Austrian General Kohler^ " because twenty experiments con-
yinced me I had only to send a few hussars on your line of
communication to spread dismay. Now I stood on it with my
whole army^ but you never troubled your • heads about me.
The devil had possession of you.^^ Alexander had proceeded
after the battle towards the outposts^ and at Dampierre, being
the anniversary of his accession, he was assisting at a mass for
the repose of Paul's soul.^ He set off to Sommepuis, where
he summoned Volkonski^ Barclay, Diebitch, and ToU^ and
asked their opinion on the two plans now open to them — ^to
unite with Blucher at Vitry^ and pursue Napoleon^ to attack
him wherever they could find him, or to cover their niarch
direct on Paris. Yolkonski alone spoke in favour of the last,
which Alexander said he approved, and should carry out. He
rode at once towards Vitry, but met Schwartzenberg and the
King within six miles, on their road to congratulate him.
He never cared to be reminded of his accession, and cut short
then* gracious speeches by telling them he had an important
plan to lay before them ; and desiring Toll to unroll a map on
the grass, they all got off their horses, while he pointed out the
route by which he proposed the two armies should march on
Paris. The King agreed at once ; Schwartzenberg consented,
but expressed regret at the probable loss of his magazines at
Chaumont, as well as of the allied sick and wounded, and
Alexander's personal baggage. The head- quarters were removed
to Vitry, and couriers sent out with orders to the various
chiefs, t The messenger to Blucher crossed a letter from him to
Alexander, strongly pointing out the necessity of an advance at
once on Paris, which caused some of his biographers to give the
idea as originating with him, though it was adopted by all
the commanders at least half an hour before his message
arrived. A friend of Talleyrand also tried to obtain credit for
the renegade diplomatist, by saying it was proposed on the receipt
of a letter from him to Alexander, written when he discovered

* As Paul died in the night of the 23rd or 24th of March, the mass for
his soul was celebrated at night every year in presence of his family.

t On these two days, March 23rd and 24th, Alexander marched thirtj-
five and thirty miles on horseback.

Capture of Varis. 25

the Austrian correspondence with Napoleon. But even if such
a letter arrived the plan was already formed^ and the measures
really suggested by Schwartzenberg are a sufficient refutation of
any such step haviug occurred to the Commander-in-Chief,
though one Austrian writer has given him the honour of it.
" It is but just to say/' writes Sir C. Stewart^ speaking of
Alexander^ '' that the determination and boldness of the enter-
prise of the march on Paris was mainly his own.''

By the prompt exertions of the Russian General Ertel and
General Kohler^ the magazines at Chaumont and the sick and
ironnded in the rear were saved. Blucher having obtained
supplies^ had advanced towards Ch&lons as soon as he heard the
Grand Army was threatened ; and on the other side Marmont
and Mortier received orders from Napoleon to join him in the
vicinity of Vitry. While proceeding to obey they were obliged
to cross the communications of the Grand Army^ and at F^re-
Champenoise engaged with its advanced guard, headed by Con-
stantine, General Nostitz, Pahlen, and Prince Eugene. The
French were driven back in utter confusion into the town, and
lost many of their guns. Alexander, the King, and Schwartzen-
berg left Vitry the same morning at nine for Fere-Champenoise,
and hearing distant firing hurried towards the front. They
reached the town, which was in possession of the Allies, as the
sun was setting; but the Emperor, instead of halting, rode with
Schwartzenberg and a small escort to the outposts, where shots
■were still being exchanged. On their way they perceived a con-
siderable body of troops, with sixteen guns, at first supposed to
be a part of Blucher's army, but in reality the French General
Pacthod, on his road to join Napoleon with a reinforcement.
They had resisted a charge from General Eorff and Vassilchikof,
and abandoning a store of provisions they were convoying, and
some artillery waggons, formed themselves into a compact mass,
and were effecting their retreat. The resistance they had
opposed to the allied cavalry gave the two French mar.shals
time to re-form their scattered ranks ; and Pacthod, perceiving
that, late as it was, a considerable force was collecting again at
Alexander's command, ordered his troops to stand to their arms,
and prepare for battle. Alexander, hoping to avoid useless
bloodshed, sent Moreau's old aide-de-camp, Rapatel, with a flag
of truce^ to summon them to surrender; but a flag of truce was

26 Tlie Campaign in Trance and

frequently disregarded by Napoleon, and his subordinates, acting
on the same principle, fired on it, and Rapatel fell dead. Though
naturally incensed at this breach of the rules of war, which cost
him a faithful adherent, who had followed him more from grati-
tude for his kindness to Moreau and his wife than from any
attachment to the Allies, Alexander was still too chivalrous
to order the 13,000 now with him to fall upon a body of 6000
infantry, and turn the battle into little better than a massacre.
He put himself at the head of his chevalier guards, and with
these only dashed into the centre of the compact mass, which
was soon penetrated on all sides, without a musket being fired by
the Russian troops; and Pacthod, in the middle of the square, sur-
rendered his sword to Alexander in person, and was afterwards
greatly astonished when be found that the officer who led on the
cavalry, and at great personal risk prevented a massacre, was the
Emperor himself. A second French general was also captured ;
and the trophies of the day amounted to 7000 prisoners, two
generals of division, four of brigade, 80 guns, 200 ammunition
waggons, and the whole of the convoy and baggage. During
this cavalry action the fugitive French marshals escaped through
the over-caution of the Prince of Wiirtemberg, who, afraid of
losing his artillery in the cross-roads, recalled Pahlen, much
against his will, from continuing the pursuit. Some Cossacks
penetrated as far as Provins, and the marshals, believing them to
precede a larger force, abandoned the town and fled to Nangis,
whence, without further loss, they reached Paris.

The next day the Allies resumed their maixsh, the Russians
of Raeffskoi^s corps heading the van to their national airs and
the rolling of the drums. Alexander rode along by the side
of his columns, and frequently conversed with the commanders.
^^My children/^ he said to his guards, '^it is but a step
further to Paris.'' " We will take it, father,'' they answered ;
" we remember Moscow." The morning before, Volkonski
expressed some fear as to the number of their opponents, and
Alexander hastily replied, " You always see the enemy double."
He now called him forward, and, in the hearing of the King
and several of his suite, told his aide-de-camp he had wronged
him, and asked his pardon. That night Alexander passed in
despatching orders in all directions to Vinzingerode, Czemi-
chef, and the other partisans, enjoining them to preserve the

Capture of Paris. 27

communications^ to keep a vigilant watch, and to forward the
earliest news to head-quarters of any French movements. If
Vinzingerode had been Barclay, and skilled in retreat, he
might have avoided a battle ; but his zeal to cover the march
on Paris engaged him with the whole French army under
Napoleon at St. Dizier, where the inhabitants furnished the
French with information of the Russian approach; and the
prisoners taken in this disastrous combat gave them the first
intelligence of the march of the Allies on Paris.

Napoleon had amused his people with glowing accounts of
his success during this campaign, always concealing his defeats.
He wrote to Caulaincourt that he had captured 30,000 or
40,000 prisoners at Champaubert, when he had taken not
more than 3000; and that he had deprived the enemy of
200 pieces of artillery when he had only obtained 24. He
said he had destroyed several armies when he had not anni-
hilated one; and tried to justify his refusal of the terms
offered at Ch&tillon by saying the Allies were not sincere.
His bulletins stated the three Sovereigns "very narrowly
escaped being shut up in Troyes, where they had retired pre-
cipitately to Bar-sur-Aube */' whereas Alexander and the King
did not quit the head-quarters from March 16th ^ till the entry
into Paris. But his letter to Joseph from Bheims on the
16th shows he was not blind to his own situation. " You are
in no event to permit the Empress and the King of Rome to
fall into the hands of the enemy. I am about to manceuvre
in such a manner that you may possibly be several days
without hearing from me. Should the enemy advance upon
Paris with such forces as to render all resistance impossible,
send off in the direction of the Loire the Empress, the King
of Rome, the great dignitaries, the ministers, the officers of
the Senate, the President of the Council of State, the great
officers of the crown, and the treasure, &c.'' When con-
vinced at St. Dizier that the Allies had actually marched on
Paris, and were three days in advance of him, he drew off his
troops and guns from an attack on the Russians at Vitry,
and spent the night in poring over maps and plans. He was
not a man who came to rapid decisions, if not previously

* Unless Alexander's night at Dampierre may be thought to form an
ezceptioii.

28 Tlie Campaign in France and

revolved in his own mind^ and in a great emergency was often
hesitating and slow. But on the 28th he resolved to make
a retrograde movement^ and^ avoiding the allied army^ to
raach Paris with forced marches, by Vassy, Troyes, Sens, and
FoDtainebleau. His victory over Vinzingerode had spread
such terror in the rear that Francis, Mettemich, Lord
Aberdeen, Razoumovski, Stadion, and the other diplomatists
e.nployed in the negotiations at Chfttillon, set off at once by
cross-roads to Dijon, where one division of the Austrians was
encamped; and they did not halt till they had completed a
journey of at least thirty-three mUes.

The same day Maria Louisa and her son left Paris ; though
Talleyrand^ and more than one of her advisers opposed it^ as
depriving the Imperial dynasty of its last hope of the throne.
But Joseph showed Napoleon^s letter, which he said left him
no choice. On March 29th an ofiScial proclamation was
affixed to the walls of Paris, calling on the people to bamcade
their streets and resist the Allies, who, it informed the
Parisians, regarded the pillage and destruction of their capital
as the reward and end of the invasion. It stated that
Alexander proposed to send off the elite of its artistes and
workmen to people Russian deserts, and would then set fire
to all the quarters of the town. " No V it ended, " the
Allies shall never approach Paris.'' Joseph assured the in-
habitants that Napoleon was close at hand with all his army
for their support. A day's delay on the part of the allied
forces might indeed have turned the scale of victory; but
tliey had got the start of their adversary, and kept it.

Alexander issued an order to all the commanders in the
Russian army, March 26th : " Let the troops under your
command observe the strictest discipline, and on no account
whatever leave their bivouacs to go into the villages. Their
requirements, such as firewood, straw, &c., must only be sup-
plied through the intervention of the mayor. You know how
much the good conduct of our troops may influence the
common success, and therefore his Majesty will hold you

* Napoleon ordered Talleyrand to accompany Maria Louisa, but he
contrived to be stopped at the barrier, and Capefigae states he saw
Alexander at Chatean de Bondy on the morning of the 31st ; but Capefigue
is veiy inaccurate, and this is denied by more competent authorities.

Capture of Paris. 29

personally responsible for the execution of this order/^ He also
wrote to the commander of the Bavarians : " At the moment
we are approaching Paris it is only by the strictest subordi-
nation among the troops that we can hope to obtain our
objects. You were one of the first to be convinced of the
necessity of gaining over the affections of the Parisians to
our cause ; but shall we be acting on this conviction if the
villages round Paris are left a prey to plunderers instead of
finding protection from our armies? I entreat you to use
every possible means to prevent acts of violence. Every
commander of a corps or detachment should be made perso-
nally responsible for every disorder. Your active exertions on
this occasion will secure you the general gratitude and double
the high respect I feel for you.'^ The difference between these
orders^ the admirable manner in which they were carried out,
and the conduct of Napoleon^s armies both in foreign coun-
tries and in France^ where he promised his soldiers four hours'
pillage of Paris if they recaptured it from the Allies^ even
suggested itself to his people. When all was over they felt
ashamed of the Napoleonic system^ which had drawn on them
such a reproach^ and to Alexander is chiefly due the inaugura-
tion of a more civilized mode of war.

The country through which the Allies marched to Paris
from Fere-Champenoise was rich in villas^ orchards^ and vine-
yards, not yet presenting much token of spring. The Russian
vanguard of Blucher's army was reduced by numerous battles
from 20,000 to 6000, and bore traces of their exertions in their
haggard faces and worn-out clothes. The Emperor publicly
thanked them^ and distributed rewards both in money and
decorations. The Imperial Guard still preserved its accoutre-
ments and bright cuirasses, as if it had spent the last year in
barracks in St. Petersburg. The three Grand Dukes of Russia
marched with their various regiments, the two youngest —
Nicholas and Michael — having only recently arrived. In the
Prussian army many a youthful warrior has since had another
opportunity of entering Paris in triumph. Prince William,
the King's second son, and now Emperor of Germany, received
the cross of St. George from Alexander after Bar-sur-Aube ;
he was the same age as the late Emperor Nicholas, and the
intimacy between them^ which continued through life, began

80 Tlie Campaign in France and

on the fields of France. The Prince of Prussia and Prince
Charles also accompanied their father ; but chance or design
kept the Austrian princes from sharing in the last struggle
"with the French.

The Parisians were not wanting in the hour of danger, and
the military and National Guards prepared for an energetic
defence. The civilians are described by an English prisoner as
lounging outside the cafes and restaurants, apparently unin-
terested spectators of the wounded French who were brought
into the city and laid down to die on the pavement. The
garrison consisted of 35,000 men, and 150 guns were quickly
posted on the heights of Belleville and Montmartre, which had
been fortified, and the country round flooded, to impede the march
of the Allies. From Mont Valerien on the west to the fortress of
Vincennes on the east, a line of hills offers a natural protection,
to Paris, and the pupils of the Polytechnic School and other
public institutions came forward as volunteers to work the
artillery.* Marmont and Mortier took the chief command :
and at 2 a.m., March 30th, the drums called all to arms. At
five they could discern the Allies in full march towards the
city, on the road from Meaux. RaeflFskoi^s Russian corps was
charged with the attack on the French centre between Pantin
and Vincennes, and especially on Belleville ; on the right the
Silesian army, which, Blucher being still unable to command^
was led by Barclay, was to advance on Montmartre on two
sides, but it did not arrive till eleven o'clock, three hours after
the attack had commenced ; Langeron from Clichy and
St. Denis; Kleist, Yorck, and Voronzov on the allied left,
from the villages of La Villette and La Chapelle. In the
absence of Mettemich to support him, and still suffering from
gout, Schwartzenberg left Alexander to take the undisputed
direction of the assault; and, owing to the lateness of the
Silesian army, the Russian troops bore the chief weight of the
battle ; for white their loss in killed and wounded was not less
than 7100, the army of Wiirtemberg counted 153 as missing,

»

♦ The heroic defence of Paris has occasionally been attribnted mainly
to the Polytechnic School and the National Guard, and great injustice
done to the brave soldiers of the corps of Marmont and Mortier. ITiere
were only three wounded and none killed among the pupils of the Poly-
technic. Five of the National Guard were placed hon de combat, and
njearly 5000 of the regular army.

Capture of Paris. • 31

and the Prussians 1840. '^ Father Paris, you shall now pay
for Mother Moscow V was the exclamation of a Russian
artilleryman as he loaded his gun ; and as soon as the heights
of Clichy, Chaumont, Belleville, and Montmartre were carried
by assault, there were many in the Russian army who longed
to wreak their revenge, and waited with impatience for the
signal to fire into Paris.

Napoleon was struck with the effect of the gilded domes

and cupolas in Moscow, and on his return to Paris gilded

the dome of the H6tel des Invalides (the hospital built by

Louis XIV. for old soldiers), and it now flashed a conspicuous

object in the sun. At 5 am. of the 30th, Joseph destroyed

all the foreign standards hung round its chapel, and the sword

of Frederick suspended in the middle was broken, so that

Blucher might not be able to keep his oath, that he would not

lay down arms till he had wrested it from the enemy. At

twelve on the following day, Joseph quietly left the city,

giving directions to the National Guard to protect the palaces,

and authority to the marshals to enter into terms with the

enemy as soon as resistance proved useless. The ministers

followed his example, with as much of the public treasure as

they could secure. In the mean time, the marshals kept their

men to their posts with the most loyal valour. Mortiei*^s

troops resisted the Prussian and Russian army for four hours,

till Voronzov brought up his Russian corps to support them.

The Russian and Prussian guards of the reserve were at

Alexander's order called forward to assist Raeflskoi in the

centre ; and the heavy loss that the assailants sustained showed

the force of the resistance. A Prussian colonel ordered up to

reinforce Barclay, rushed forward at the head of his regiment

with such impetuosity that Alexander took the Cross of

St. George from his brother's coat and sent it to him on the

field. The Prince of Wiirtemberg arrived at his post at the

extreme left of the Allies about one o'clock, and the Austrians

were never under fire throughout the day. The advance of

the Russian centre so early as eight has been blamed as the

cause of a heavier loss than if they had allowed more time for

the Prussians and Austrians to join them. A rapid movement

was important when so skilful an enemy as Napoleon was

arriving with the utmost speed ; and a delay might have given

32 The Campaign in "France and

the citizens time to fortify their streets^ and encouraged them
with the hope of a prolonged defence. So far Napoleon had
done nothing towards assisting the Parisians^ as even Mar-
mont and Mortier were present contrary to his orders^ from
having been unable to carry them out, or their armies wonld
have been at least fifty miles distant. On March 30th, 1813,
he declared to his senate that he would not resign a German vil-
lage if the enemy was encamped at Montmartre. But exactly
a year later, he sent Caulaincourt twice to make any terms of
peace with Alexander, and even offered to curtail the territory
of France to save his throne. When, after a march of forty
miles in one day, he arrived at Troyes, and found it was im-
possible to overtake the Allies, he despatched an aide-de-camp
to the marshals to say he was coming at once to Paris, and
that negotiations were renewed with the allied Powers, through
the medium of Metternich and Francis, who were disposed to
make peace.'^ Mortier received this information at 3 p.m., and
at once forwarded it with a flag of truce to Schwartzenberg,
who showed it to Alexander, by whose desire this answer
was returned : '^ The intimate and indissoluble union subsisting
between the sovereign powers affords a guarantee that the nego-
tiations you suppose are on foot separately between Austria and
France have no foundation ; and that the reports which you
have received on that head are entirely groundless."

Throughout the morning the assailants and the defenders
of Paris were very equally matched, and Alexander had re-
mained on horseback on the field of battle since eight a.m.,
ordering up reinforcements where required, and marking out
his most distinguished officers for promotion and reward. But
as the afternoon wore on the Allies greatly outnumbered the
French troops, almost to the extent of three to one; the
Cossacks penetrated on the side of Vincennes as far as the
suburb of St. Antoine; 1000 prisoners, 86 guns, and two
standards were captured by the Kussians, and the heights
carried to the sound of mingled huzzas, and vivas, and cries of
" Fire upon Paris." A battery of light artillery under Milora-
dovitz sent a few shots into the Boulevards, and nearly 300
cannon were being planted at an elevation from which they

* This was asserted to be true by Talleyrand at the Congress of Vienna^
(See Munster's Political Sketches.)

Capture of Paris. 3S

could have completely swept the streets. The marshals per-
ceived that in another half- hour the French must inevitably
be chased within the gates of Paris^ and the conquerors would
eater after them^ subjecting the city to all the chances of a
capture by assault. They sent an officer to Alexander, who was
on the projecting part of the hill of Belleville^ immediately
overlooking the Faubourg St. Martin, and requested an armi-
stice. The Emperor answered^ he could only grant one on con-
dition that Paris surrendered, and as the officer was not
empowered to accept such terms, he sent his aide-de-camp.
Colonel Orlof,* with him to Marmont, whom he found in the
first line encouraging his men. The Russian bombs were at
this moment bursting in the Chaussee d'Antin, and one or two
fell close to the church of St. Eustache: thirty howitzers
carrying bomb-shells commanded the entire city, and Paris
lay at the Czar's mercy. The marshals had therefore no
alternative but to trust to his generosity or to watch its
destruction, and they were not deceived in their estimate of
Alexander when they gave it unconditionally into his hands.
The capitulation was signed by Orlof and Schwartzenberg's
aide-de-camp, Count Paar, as well as by two of Marmont^s
officers, and orders were sent round to stop the firing, and
obeyed by 100,000 men. No army Napoleon ever com-
manded would have listened to his voice in a moment of such
excitement, if he had given an order as much opposed to their
natural instinct of revenge. He led them, but it was through
pandering to their human weaknesses, and he was known to
envy the Russian discipline. The wind was in a quarter
most favourable to the Allies, and it was allowed on all sides
that nothing but the Czar^s personal influence over his soldiers
could at that moment have saved Paris and her 600,000
inhabitants. The terms of the capitulation were signed at
two A.M. of March 31st^ though the armies, extinguishing their
burning matches, had piled their muskets and rested for
several hours. The town of St. Denis surrendered to the
Silesian army the same day. A suspension of arms once
obtained, and the threatened danger averted for the moment,
the marshals were inclined to haggle over the terms, hoping
that Napoleon^s arrival would turn the tide of the war.

* He signed the treaty of Paris in 1856.

VOL. III. D

34 The Campaign in France and

They wished to be allowed to leave the city with their troops
in any direction they might choose. Alexander was not
inclined to be hard with them, and rightly judging that with
Paris in their power the Allies would be virtually masters
of France, and a dispirited army of 20,000 men would be
no great obstacle in the settlement of peace, he granted
this condition, but gave them notice they must leave Paris
before seven a.m., for he should enter it with his army in the
course of the day. The arsenals and magazines were to be
surrendered, the National Guard either disbanded or employed
by the Allies, and the wounded or stragglers found after
ten A.M. would be prisoners of war. Schwartzenberg and the
King retired to their night quarters, while messages were still
being exchanged by Alexander and Nesselrode with Mortier
and Marmont. At last, when the signatures were aflSxed,
the Czar went to the Ch&teau de Bondy, where he had
rested the previous night, and at half-past two lay down to
sleep. But he rose an hour later to receive a deputation from
the Municipality of Paris, to offer him the keys of the city,
and to implore his protection. They had left it at two oMock,
and lighted by the numerous watch-fires on their road, drove
rapidly through their sleeping enemies. While the Emperor
was dressing they talked to Nesselrode, who questioned them
as to the state of public feeling in Paris. They answered by
describing the three political parties, Bonapartists, Legitimists,
and Eepublicans ; and said the best French statesmen habitually
resorted to Talleyrand's house, where the real feeling of the
educated men of France could be most fully ascertained. These
observations induced Alexander to resort to M. Talleyrand's
house before he established himself in the Palace of the Elysee
in the course of the same day.

The deputation delivered an address to the Emperor as
soon as he admitted them. He answered. ''Your Emperor,
who was my ally, came into the heart of my empire, carrying
there a destruction which years will not efface. I am far
from wishing to return to France the calamities I have received
from her. Napoleon is my sole enemy. I promise my special
protection to the town of Paris. I will guard and preserve all
the public establishments. It is for yourselves to secure your
Own future happiness. I must give you a goremment which

Capture of Paris, 35

"will insure your own repose and that of Europe/' Caulain-
court arrived an hour or two later from Napoleon, with full
powers to accept not only the terms oflfered at Ch&tillon, but
to promise the payment of a war contribution or the surrender
of fortresses; in short, any concession which would permit
him to keep his throne. Alexander saw the deputy for a few
moments, but only to tell him he could no longer treat with
Napoleon, who reached Fontainebleau the previous day, and
taking Caulaincourt, proceeded in a carriage to within a few
miles of Paris. Thei^e, as he was changing horses, some
stragglers informed his escort of the capitulation of the city,
confirmed by the arrival of a column of cavalry under General
Belliard, whom Alexander had permitted to retire, and was on
his way to join his master. Napoleon laid the blame on all
his faithful servants, and accused them of not executing orders
which he had never given. He said his horses had been as
swift as the wind; he only asked them to hold out twenty-
four hours : *' miserable wretches, they had my orders, and
knew that I should be here with 70,000 men. I see every one
has lost his senses. This comes of employing fools and
cowards.^' He talked of going on to Paris at the head of this
cavalry corps, but was easily deterred. " When I am not
there they do nothing but heap blunder on blunder. Entered
into the capital of 800,000 souls! It is too dreadful.'*
He ordered Caulaincourt to fly to the allied head-quarters,
and arrange something with Alexander in person; and then
returned to Fontainebleau. His envoy following him to report
the failure of his mission, was so touched by his disappoint-
ment that he declared he would try once more and penetrate,
dead or alive, into Alexander's room, to appeal to him for his
rival in the name of their former friendship. Napoleon must
certainly have reached an astonishing depth of humiliation
before he could try and work on the feelings of a man whom
he had injured and endeavoured to deceive as he had injured
Alexander; but he despatched Caulaincourt with renewed
hope, telling him he depended entirely on his efforts. It has
been stated that he sent orders to one of the marshals to
destroy Paris if the Allies entered it, and he certainly seemed
to regret at St. Helena that such a plan was not carried out.
A story to this effect was circulated in Paris^ and Colonel

d2

36 I%e Campaign in Trance and

Le Comte Lescours received the decoration of St. Anne from
Alexander for having given up to him the order intrusted to
him (Lescours) by the marshal when he quitted Faris^ on the
colonel promising faithfully to ignite the magazines'^ and blow
up the public establishments ; a promise he considered himself
justified in giving, thoagh he did not mean to keep it^ lest the
order should be transferred to a less scrupulous agent.

Upon the departure of the deputation from the municipality^
others arrived from the various Parisian corporations to wait
on Alexander, and one from the National Guard, requesting
him to maintain them to Eeep order in the city. The Emperor
asked the chief of the staff if he could rely upon them, and on
being informed they would discharge their duties as honourable
men, he said he could expect nothing more, and directed them
to refer to General Sacken, whom he had appointed Governor
of Paris, adding that they would find him in every respect a
man of delicacy and honour.

It was necessary to have been educated in the system
of the first Empire, and accustomed to scenes which sur-
passed Ismail in horror when the French entered a
conquered towu^ to appreciate the relief the Parisians
felt when they saw the manner in which Alexander
used his influence over the assembled armies, and that from the
moment the capitulation was signed not a drop of blood was shed
or a loaf stolen by the wild-looking hosts who poured through
their gates. They were even protected from an outbreak of the
ragged mob of Jacobins and Communists, long a terror to the
wealthier classes in the towns of France whenever there has
been a change of government. The Cossacks, whom Napoleon
depicted as indulging in draughts of human blood, and wearing
necklaces of noses and ears, strolled leisurely about, looking
quietly into the shop windows, and, like English sailors, sub-
mitting to all kinds of imposition, such as paying thirty francs
for an article which pleased their fancy, when the real price
was not more than five. The Russian officers were more cor-
teous in their behaviour, and more considerate to the feelings
of the inhabitants, than the Swedes on the staff of Bernadotte,
a Frenchman by birth If It was not surprising if their grati-

• Memoirs of Patrick Fraser Tytler.
f The Duchesse d*Abrant^B and others.

Capture of Paris. 37

tade assumed a joyful aspect when the Allied Sovereigns
made their public entry. The gala reception which fear and
his express orders had extracted for Napoleon from many of
the vianquished towns on the Continent was the due of his
more merciful conquerors^ who left them at liberty to put on
mourning if they preferred it, and only wished to secure their
future repose. They were in no humour to scoff at those
principles of religion which actuated Alexander in refusing to
avail himself of the opportunity for avenging Moscow ; for
they were too much indebted to them, and there is little
doubt that they had some effect in a nation so much influenced
by fashion and the example of those above them as the
French, and procured at least a more tolerant reception for the
Bourbons, who were associated in the minds of their subjects
with the rSffime of the priests and convents. The liberty for
which they cast off their old monarchs reappeared under the
auspices of the autocrat of the north, and the press threw off
its fetters to indulge in controversies as to the respective
merits of the claimants to their government. Alexander saw
the Bourbons could not keep the throne for a month, if per-
mitted to follow out their scheme of restoring everything as it
stood before the constitution granted by Louis XVI.
" Alexander,'' says Ch&teaubriand, " before he quitted Paris,
left us a free charter, a liberty that we owe as much to his
lights as to his influence. Chief of two supreme authorities,
doubly autocrat by the sword and by religion, he alone of all
the sovereigns of Europe understood that at the age of civi-
lization to which France had arrived she could only be
governed in virtue of a free constitution.'' A young French-
man admiring the ease with which he allowed petitioners to
approach him, Alexander replied, " What else are sovereigns
made for ?" His delicacy in not taking up his quarters at the
Tuileries deeply impressed the French as so unlike the vulgar
, pride which made Napoleon hasten to occupy the Imperial
rooms in the Kremlin and the Royal chamber at Potsdam.
The popularity he acquired among all classes of politicians did
more to banish the fallen Emperor from their hearts than
any material victory. Symptoms of a peasant war&re had
shown themselves on the route of the Allies, by the
murder of isolated detachments ; but now they would have

38 The Campaign in France and

gained nothing and lost much by such a course. " Yoa
should be our Emperor^ and give us a prince like yourself/'
were cries not seldom heard from the I'arisians when
Alexander appeared in sight.

The Czar was on horseback at eight a.m. on March 31 st^
and rode with his stalST to the King's head-quarters at Fantin^
to arrange the entrance of the troops into Paris. The streets
swarmed with the lowest of the populace^ hoping for a riot and
opportunity to plunder^ and one of Alexander's aides-de-camp^
attended by a few Cossacks and Bashkirs^ on his way to pre*
pare the Emperor's abode^ was attacked, but the National
Guard interposed. The mob shouted, ^' Napoleon is arriving
to us. Frenchmen. Let us annihilate the enemy." But the ap-
pearance of Constantine at the head of the cavalry soon
checked demonstrations. Lamartine was a spectator of
the procession. The Grand Duke he describes as riding " a
wild horse of the steppes, representing barbarous war evoked
from the deserts of the north to spread over the south \ but
submissive, and a tame and attached slave to his brother, he
imposed on his squadron the discipline and bearing of a peace
festival."** Another spectatorf observes, the physiognomy of
the Russian troops indicated strongly the different nations to
which they belonged. Constantine seemed much liked by the
common soldiers, to whom he often nodded and smiled.
M. de la Rochefoucauld came up to ask him to allow troops to
surround the column in the Place Yenddmc, and protect it
while the statue of Napoleon was taken down. He coldly
answered it was no concern of his.

Alexander, the King, and Schwartzenberg, riding together,
accompanied by the brothers and sons of the two Sovereigns,
entered the Porte St. Martin, followed and preceded by the
Cossacks of the Guard, between ten and eleven a.m., for it was
a work of time to march the long columns through the crowded
streets. Their most distinguished generals rode with them, as
well as several British oflScers. Every window and roof was
crammed with spectators, and the chief object of interest with
all was to see the Czar. " Vive Alexandre 1 Vive le Roi des
Prusses ! Vivent les AUifes !" was heard on all sides. The

* Histoire de la Restauration.
t M^moires d'un Page de la Goor Imp^iiale.

Capture of Paris. 89

crowd straggled with each other to shake hands with the
Emperor^ so that he often was obliged to check his horse to
avoid treading on them. *' We have been long waiting for
you,*^ said a Royalist. '^ We should have arrived sooner but
for the bravery of your troops/' answered the Czar ; a reply
which elicited much applause. The procession paused a
moment before the gate of St. Denis, to read the inscription
to ^' Louis the Great/' and Alexander remained in the Champs
Elys^s directing his troops and appointing their place of
rendezvous till five p.m.^ when the last soldier had passed.
Then he left his horse at the Elysee Palace, where rooms were
prepared for him, and inquiring the road to M. de Talleyrand,
went there on foot. He was accosted by La Rochefoucauld,
who asked him to restore her legitimate princes to France.
He answered, that he must know the spirit of the army and
the national voice before he took an irrevocable step. He
knew the constitution of the French Government as well as a
Frenchman, and his first direction to Talleyrand was to convoke
the Senate and establish a provisional government.^

• Sir C. Stewart, in hia report to the Marqais of Wellesley, says : —
" It is impossible to convey an idea of the scene yesterday, when the Em-
peror of Russia, the King of Prussia, and Prince Schwartzenberg made
their entry at the head of tha allied troops. The cavalry under the
Grn^nd Duke Oonstantine, and the Guards ot all the different allied forces,
were formed in columns early in the morning ou the road from Bondy to

Paris All Paris seemed to be assembled and concentred on one

spot. They thronged in such masses round the Emperor and the Kin^^
tnat with all their condescension and gracious familiarity, extending their
hands on all sides, in was in vain to attempt to satisfy the populace. The
air resounded with cries of Vive TEmpereur ! Vive le Roi de Prusse ! Vive

nod lib^rateurs The Soverei^s halted on the Champs Elys^es,

when the troops defiled before them m the most admirable order, and the

head-quarters were established at Paris The allied armies march

to-morrow, with the exception of the Guards and reserves wh3 remain
here, towards Fontainebleau, and take up a post to be regulated by the
movement-s of Bonaparte. Castlereagh is with the Emperor of Austria.
When our communications were broken in upon he went to Dijon with all
the ministers, &c., except Nesselrode, who is here." *' It would be unjust,"
says the same writer on a subsequent occasion, ** not to declare, that if the
Continent had so long borne the scourge of usurpation under the iron
sway of Bonaparte, it was also crowned with the blessing of possessing
amongst its legitimate sovereigns one who by a firm and glorious conduct
richly deserved the name of the liberator of mankind. This Sovereign, I
have no hesitation in saying, is Alexander, for it is impossible to estimate
too highly his enerffy and noble conduct in the short campaign from the
Rhine to Paris, llie management of every measure undouot^ly lay with
the Emperor of Russia and the confidential cabinet which he hsui formed.
Count Nesselrode, at no time very independent, fell somewhat into the

40 77ie Campaign in Finance and

'^ To dictate laws at the gates of Paris to the people who
burned his own capital/' says Lamartine;* ^^to hold in his
hand the crown or the abdication of Napoleon^ was enough to
intoxicate an ordinary soul ; but Alexander was a great soul^
and put his glory not in vengeance^ but in generosity. Re-
prisals against a people or against a conquered man appeared
to him what they are — a perversion of success. He had
the grand magnanimity of the heroic races of the East. He
respected humanity^ he adored Providence. Youngs handsome^
the admired of all eyes^ bearing a melancholy reflection on his
features^ he conducted himself with a majestic simplicity
before the world/' " Alexander was truly great/' writes the
Duchesse d'Abrantes ; '^ the man who could avenge himself^
and pushed that delicious beverage from his lips^ was a being
above others."t '' He had something calm and sad in his

hands of M. de Talleyrand, as well as General Pozzo di Borgo, a man of
consammate ability, but not yet of sufficient weight in Paris to afford any
check to the mode of proceeding of the new French ministry (to which he
was accredited after tne Restoration as Russian ambassador). The Em-
peror of Russia's conduct since bis arrival in Paris was carried on with
so much address that it was incalculable what influence he had obtained
over the Parisian character." Sir George Jackson corroborates these
statements in his diary, and adds, " he is most popular with the Paiisians
of all grades. When he shows himself in pubhc he is most gracious in
his condescension towards the populace, who throng about him and shout
till they are hoarse to do him honour. In society he is, as indeed he has
always been, exceedingly affable, desiring the observance of as little form
and ceremony as possible. The ladies say he is adorable. . . . He is also
very popular with the army."

* Histoire de la Restauration.

t " We were struck," writes an English visitor to Paris in A{>ril, 1814,
" with the simplicity of the style in which Alexander lived. He inhabited
only one or two apartments in a wing of the splendid Elys^e, rose at
four A.H. to transact business, and was very regular in his attendance at a
small chapel where the service of the Greek Church was performed. We
had access to very good information concerning him, and the account we
received of his character even exceeded our anticipations. His well-known
humanity was described as having undergone no change from the scenes
of misery inseparable from extended warfare to which his duties rather
than his inclinations had so long accustomed him. He repeatedly left
behind him, in marching with the army, some of the medical staff to
dress the wounds of French soldiers whom he passed on his way. He
was described bv everybody as a man not merely of the most amiaole dis-
position, but of superior understanding, uncommon activity, and a firm
decided turn of mind. He was certainly looked on by officers who had
long served under him as one of the ablest commanders in the allied
armies. As a specimen of the general feeling in the Russian army at the
time it invaded France, we may mention a conversation an officer of the
Russian staff (Dr. Criohton) told us he held with a piivate. of the goajKl

Capture of Paris. 41

appearance/' says Chftteaubriand ; " he traversed Paris on foot
and on horseback without attendants and without affectation.
. . . He was a king who had learned humanity. It was pro-
posed that the name of the bridge of Austerlitz should be
changed. * It is enough/ said he^ ' that I have passed over
it with my army.' " He also preserved the Venddme column
from destruction, and when visiting the Hdtel des Invalides
felt a soldier's sympathy for the disabled old men, deprived
first by Joseph and then by the allied generals of all the
cannon and other trophies of the battles where they had left
their limbs. Several had been wounded at Austerlitz, many
at Pultusk and Friedland. He ordered twelve useless Russian
cannon to be restored to them, and left them brightened up,
and again ready to boast of their deeds of valour.

The English tourists detained in France since the peace of
Amiens was broken were now free to return to their native
country ; and a host of British visitors, many of rank and im-
portance, took the earliest opportunity to cross the Channel
and visit Paris after its occupation by the Allies. Their asto-
nishment at the loose morality of the fair Parisiennes is vividly
described in their letters, Paris, so long known to them only

on the march. The soldier complained of the Emperor's proclamation
desiring them to consider as enemies only those 'whom they met in the
field. *' The French/ said he, * came into onr country bringing hosts of
Germans and Poles along with them ; they plundered our properties,
burned our houses, and murdered our families ; every Russian was their
enemy. We have driven them out of Bussia, we have followed them to
France, but wherever we go we are allowed to find none but friends. This,'
he added, * is very well for us guards who know pillage is unworthy of us,
but the common soldiers and Cossacks do not understand it ; uiey re-
member how their friends and relations have been treated by the French,
and that remembrance lies at their hearts.' The recollection of Moscow
was strong in the Bussian army, and the desire of revenge so general,
even amongst the superior officers, that they said nothin;^ could have re-
strained them but the presence and positive commands oi their Czar, nor
could any other influence have mamtained that admirable discipline in
the Bussian army during its stay in France which we have so often heard
the theme of panegyric even among their most inveterate enemies.
Blncher was ill, it was reported, with delirium tremens all the time the
armies remained in Fans, and never showed himself publicly there in
1814. Hia army consisted at first of four Bussians to one Prussian. In-
deed, it was the intention of the Emperor to put himself at its head,
but he afterwards gave up that idea, tninking he was more needed by the
€kund Army. The arrangements of the Bussian hospital staff under
Wylie have attained in a few years a surprising degree of excellence. The
state of the Bussian hospitals at Paris, under the direction of Dr. Crichton,
was nniyersally admired."

42 The Campaign in France and

through her newspapers issued from an enslaved press, was
displayed in reality before their eyes; and her churches all
falling to ruins, her manufactories converted into barracks,
" the streets more dirty than Edinburgh in its worst days,'*
and French regiments in arrear of their pay for sixteen
months, showed the results of the Imperial despotism, which,
after drawing from France an annual revenue of 1,500,000,000
francs, and 1,080,000,000/. in money and requisitions from
foreign countries since Napoleon's Consulate, had left her a
debt of 83,000,000/., which was enormously increased after
"Waterloo, when the French were called upon to pay the ex-
penses of the war. Paris now resembled Moscow or Nijni
Novgorod more than a European city, in the variety of strange
uniforms and costumes, Polish Jews, Russian carters, Kirghiz
Tartars, and Bashkirs, who swarmed in the streets. ** To-
day,^' writes an English diplomatist (April 1st), '^ the camp of
the Cossacks in the Champs Elys&s is the chief object of
curiosity to all Paris." It was in a picturesque disorder, their
worn and tattered uniforms, their wild weapons, lances, bows
and arrows, sabres and pistols, hung on the trees. Hawkers
strolled among them selling oranges, brandy, and beer, which
last, it was observed, was not at all to their taste. All unite
in praising the excellence of the Russian discipline, on the
authority of the Marquis de Frondeville and other Frenchmen,
both before and after their entrance into Paris. Lord Pal-
merston,* travelling through France, heard from the country
people that " the Russians were the most gentle of the invading
armies.'^ The irregular horsemen belonging to the Prussian
army were, as their own generals state, not kept in much dis-
cipline ; and all the irregulars of the allied army being indis-
criminately termed Cossacks by the French, the last have often
been unjustly accredited with the depredations of their German
comrades, and even with those of Napoleon's men. Count
Beugnot,t says that the Russian governor of Paris, ^' showed
himself kind and attentive to the inhabitants.'^ He would
have wished Alexander to prolong his sojourn in France,
to consolidate the new Bourbon Government ; but the
Russian general begged him, as the director of the French
police, to be on his guard and protect the Czar to the

•

* Diary in France, 1815-18. f M^moires de Comte Beugnot.

Capture of Paris. 43

be9t of his ability ; for if lie was assassinated^ or even merely
insulted in Faris^ himself and his generals would not be able
to prevent the soldiers^ who adored him^ irom setting fire to
the city. Under these circumstances^ Beugnot felt infinitely
relieved when Alexander departed^ as the anti- Bourbon party
were still rather active, and nightly assassinations made the
streets unsafe after dark.

On the evening of March 31st a proclamation^ signed by
Alexander at three p.m., was posted about the walls of Paris. It
announced the occupation of the city, and that the Allies would no
longer treat with Napoleon or any of his family. It stated that
Europe required France to be great and powerful, and the in-
tegrity of all France under its legitimate kings would be pre-
served. It called upon her to declare in favour of the kind of
government she preferred, and invited the Senate to appoint a
provisional administration. It was the first intimation the
Parisians had received that the Bonaparte dynasty was dethroned.
The Emperor and the King of Prussia dined that evening with
Talleyrand in the Rue St. Florentin ; but before they sat down
a message was brought to Alexander, telling him that some of
his soldiers were without provisions, after their hot and
fatiguing day, for the shops were closed and the Government
stores empty. He sent for the mayor and the chief of the
National Ouard, telling them he would not be responsible for
disorders if his troops were allowed to want, and every species
of food was conveyed to them at once. Talleyrand assembled
a party to meet the Emperor, and after dinner they held a
conference, which included the Duke de Dalberg, M. de Pradt,
Bourrienne, the Senator Bournonville, Baron Louis, Nesselrode,
Lichtenstein, and Pozzo di Borgo. They were seated to the
right and left of the long table, except Alexander, who walked
backwards and forwards while he was speaking, and only
stopped for a few moments when he wanted to hear what
another said. He opened the conference, but allowed free
discussion ; and for the first time in the course of history a
sovereign was heard in Paris to advocate the rights of the
people. France, he declared, was tco advanced in civilization
not to be permitted to govern herself. She had formerly been
the pioneer in literature and science ; she should now set an
example of constitutional freedom to the Continent. The era

44 The Campaign in Trance and

of war and conquest he hoped was past \ the last ten years
were more worthy of the darkest ages of barbarism than of the
nineteenth century. He was determined to leave France
within her ancient boundaries, as he considered her strength
necessary to the European equilibrium \ and to crush her to
the dust, or to destroy her independence, would provoke a
rupture of that peace which might now be preserved for ever.
He enlarged on the miseries of war, and ended by saying that
Napoleon having merited the loss of a power he abused^
France should be allowed to choose her new sovereign, and
assisted against those persons who wished to maintain an order
of things proved incompatible with the safety of other nations.
Then turning towards the King of Prussia, who was nearly
asleep, he said, '^ William, and you. Prince Schwartzenberg, as
the representative of Austria, am not I speaking our common
sentiments towards France ?'* They both merely bowed their
assent. " He continued in truly fine and generous words,''
wrote one of the councillors. '* It must be agreed he was
great and admirable. It is justice to admit it.''

Alexander had expressed his belief that the elder branch
of the Bourbons would never maintain itself in France, and
he was inclined to think a republic the form of government
most suitable to her present state. Talleyrand rose as soon
as he had spoken, and said the restoration of the Bourbons
was the only way of escaping from the evils surrounding them.
Under the mild rule of a race of princes who had learned
wisdom in misfortune, all the necessary guarantees would be
obtained for a durable freedom. If the statesman of sixty
who had lived all his life in France was really sincere in this
belief, he showed a less accurate knowledge of the subject than
the foreign sovereign of thirty- six, who had never entered
Paris till that morning, and whose predictions were all fiilfiUed
when he asserted that the Orleans family would eventually
replace the Bourbons on the throne, and that a constitutional
charter would be necessary to secure a liberal government for
France under Louis XVIII. Schwartzenberg put in a word
for the Imperial dynasty, by observing that there were no indi-
cations of indifference to Napoleon in their passage through
France. " Nor," said Alexander, '' of a predilection among the
military for Louis ; and their opinion must be taken if we wish

Capture of Paris. 45

to establish a permaneat settlement of France. It is but a
few days ago since 6000 new troops suffered themselves to be
cut to pieces when a single cry of ^ Vive le Roi ' would have
saved them/' M. de Pradt answered, '* Such things will go on
so long as there is a chance of negotiating with Bonaparte^
even although at this moment he has a halter round his neck/'
Alexander did not understand this allusion till it was explained
that the Parisians were already trying to drag down Napo-
leon's statue from the top of the Venddme column. " Then/'
said Alexander to Talleyrand, '* how do you propose to esta-
blish a restoration of the Bourbons ?"* ^' By means," he replied,
" of the Senate, whom he could answer for as being Royalists,
and their example would be speedily followed by France."
The Emperor turned to the Abbe Pradt and Baron Louis, and
asked their opinion, declaring in energetic terms that he was
not the original author of the war between Russia and France ;
it was Napoleon. He was not the enemy of France,
but of all who were hostile to her liberties. The Baron and
the Abb€ both said they were Royalists, and that the great
majority of the French nation were of the same opinion. The
negotiations at Chfttillon alone prevented this opinion from
openly manifesting itself. '^ They need no longer be prevented
by such fears," said Alexander ; " I shall not treat any further
with the Emperor Napoleon." '* Nor with any member of his
family ?" said the Abbe. '' No," replied Alexander : " I have
thought of a regency for his son ; but in such a case we
should be forced to keep our armies in France to prevent
Napoleon from putting himself at the head of it." Talley-
rand said any attempt except for Napoleon or Louis would
be an intrigue. Any other government was impossible.
They separated without a decision ; for Alexander said he
must collect the votes of the chiefs of the French army before
taking a last resolution. He repaired for the night to his
rooms at the Elysee, and found many Royalists waiting to see
him in spite of the lateness of the hour. Among others

• " In Talleyrand's house," sajB Beugnot, " a high -minded sovereign
and some statesmen with him accomplished the great event of ^le
Kestoration." Beugnot felt certain that if the Senate had called a dif-
ferent family from tne Bourbons to the throne it would have been accepted
by Europe; so much prejudice was there in the minds of the Sovereigns,
and so great was the mfluence of Alexander's prediction, ^.

46 The Cawpaign in France and

the Countess de Cayla, who entreated him to restore the
Bourbons. He told her the choice of a sovereign would be
referred to the Senate and to the representatives of the army ;
and if they agreed to ask for the Bourbons they would be
restored. She flew back to invite as many senators as she
could to a soiree at her house^ and repeated the Emperor's
words to them, exacting a promise from each to vote for Louis.
" I thought it important/' she writes, " to obtain from these
gentlemen their solemn oaths. Fool that I was ; most of them
had taken and broken at least a dozen/'

But besides the Royalists anxiously waiting for Alexander,
there was Caulaincourt^ whom Napoleon long treated coldly,
merely because, being well acquainted with Russia and the
Czar^ he had warned him of the consequences of breaking his
alliance with them ; and now when all he had foretold had come
to pass^ his mediation with Alexander as the personal friend
of both Sovereigns was the fallen Emperor's last hope.
Napoleon told him to penetrate dead or live into Alexander's
room, but having arrived late at the barriers, he was refused
admittance into Paris by the Russian guard. Constantine^
driving up to make a last inspection, was moved by the despair
of the ex-ambassador to conceal him in his carriage to the
Elys& Palace; though^ hearing his errand, he told him it
was a great responsibility^ as Alexander had given orders that
no agent from Napoleon should be admitted. Caulaincourc
remained for three hours in the courtyard of the Elysee, sur-
rounded by foreign soldiers, while Constantine went in to
plead his cause. " The rooms were full," he said, when he
returned, " and the Emperor did not come out from the con-
ference till midnight. I was obliged to wait till all had retired.
Alexander is vexed at our escapade, but will receive you as a
friend." Caulaincourt, covering himself with Constantine's
cloak^ followed him upstairs into the Emperor's room, where^
though kindly received, he heard the Allies had resolved to
dethrone the Napoleon dynasty.

" I was thunderstruck/' he writes ; *' I had foreseen I
should have to discuss hard conditions ; but the Emperor
deposed never occurred to me. I proposed a Regency. ' Is
it just/ I said, ' to strike with the same blow the Empress and
her son^ who at least is not formidable to Europe?' " '^We

Capture of Paris, 47

thought of it/' said Alexander, " but what should we do with
Napoleon? He is the obstacle to the recognition of his son/'
" He would make all the sacrifices his unfortunate circum-
stances require,'' said Caulaincourt. Alexander replied, " He
might from necessity ; but his ambition would soon return,
and Europe again be convulsed." *' I see," said the envoy,
bitterly, " you have resolved on his fall." "Whose fault is
it ?" Alexander answered, warmly ; " what have I not done
to prevent this extremity ? You must own I tried in every
way to open his eyes to the inevitable result of his unjust
policy. In my foolish credulity (sotte probit^) as a young
man, I believed in the sacredness of his sworn friendship, and
I said to him, * The Powers, weary of outrages and insults,
must ally themselves against your insupportable rule.' His
answer to my frank communication was war, and he threw
away my pure attachment." " I could find no words," writes
Caulaincourt, ''to oppose to these recriminations, made
without pride or anger." " Even now," continued the Czar,
'' I feel no hatred towards him." But Caulaincourt was still
unable to induce him to promise any support. He was satis-
fied for the moment by Alexander consenting to mention the
Regency at the council the following day. '' Every other pro-
posal," said the Czar, '' is impossible ; do not deceive yourself."
" To this long discourse," writes Caulaincourt, " succeeded one
of those happy conversations of other times. No one knew
like Alexander how to carry into private life that gracious ease
which makes distances disappear. Putting aside his official
demeanour, he became the amusing and lively talker of
charming frivolities." Caulaincourt asked him after " the
beautiful Antoine Narishkin." He replied, " she took advan-
tage of his weakness." He made the best resolutions against
her, and then did not know how to resist her. " I have not
common sense," he said. " He still loved her," says Caulain-
court, '' like a madman, though she was 700 leagues away, and
he had not seen her for nearly two years."

Caiilaincourt had not been admitted into the palace till
one A.M., and it was now four. Alexander had only rested
an hour the previous night, and was to hold another council
early that day. '' Your Majesty," said Caulaincourt, " wants
to get rid of me. I know the place well, and will go into

48 Tlie Campaign in France and

the next room to shut myself up there/' The room Alex-
ander occupied had been Napoleon's when he inhabited the
Elysee; and the boudoir into which Caulaincourt retired
contained his writing table^ and was still filled with plans and
pamphlets on Russia^ just as he had left it for the campaign.
The Duke slept till nearly eight, disturbed occasionally by
the sound of the officers going into the Emperor's room for
orders, and saw from the windows the Russian troops bivouack-
ing in the garden as well as in the streets. Towards eight
Constantino knocked at his door and told him Alexander
was obliged to go out before seeing him, but they would
breakfast together in his room. " It is necessary/' says
Caulaincourt, '^ to have lived at the Court of Russia to form
a true idea of the simplicity, of the familiarity with good
taste of the princes of the Imperial family in the relations of
private life. The distance between princes and the persons
they honour with their friendship is only observed by the
last."* In Napoleon's prosperous days Alexander had often
laughed at the mode in which he exacted servile offices from
the nobility of the French Court. " I prefer to be waited
*npon by an ordinary valet-de-chambre," he said; "Napoleon
degrades the dignity of an ambassador when he turns Caulain-
court into a groom, and orders him to hold his horse." At
breakfast Caulaincourt heard from Constantine of the havoc
made by the war among those young men whom he had
known so brilliant and so happy in Russia. Many also had
lost an entire fortune. A serious if not melancholy tone
seemed to pervade the whole Russian army, and after such
great trials they felt that even now a triumphal rejoicing and
self-applause would be out of place. In the campaign of
1807 an English officer writes rather sarcastically, that the
Russians " have a passion for attributing all their successes to

* It has been already mentioned that Kapoleon expected his own mother
to stand up when he was in a room with her nntil he gave her permission
to sit down. At the little Conrt of Cassel, Jerome Bonaparte and his ^fe

followed the same system, and when they asked German nobles to dina^
with them it was merely to stand ronna the table while the King and
Qneen dined alone. An old German baix>n, sinking with fatigne and age,
was asked on one of these occasions it he did not feel tired. *' Yes," he
answered, " having always been accustomed to sit down when I dined with
Frederick the Great." The Russian nobles never submitted under Panl
of Russia to the insults which the French and German courtiers sustained
from Kapoleon and* his family.

Capture of Paris. 49

the God of Russia/' The same religious feeling when they
occupied France greatly astonished the French^ who never
thought of attributing their victories to any agency but their
own genius or glorious destiny^ and their calamities to treachery^
bad weather^ or evil fate. ^^We listened/' says a contem-
porary French journalist^ ^^to young Russian officers on the
very day of their triumphant entry into Paris, who spoke of
their exploits from Moscow to the Seine as of deeds accom-
plished under the guidance of Divine Providence, and ascribed
to themselves only the glory of having been chosen as His
instruments. They spoke of their victories without exultation,
and in language so simple, it seemed to us as if they did so
by common consent out of politeness/'* In contrast with this,
an English traveller, writing in 1814, remarks on the thunders
of applause every word levelled against religion or the priests
received from the French audience in the Parisian theatres.
The military prided themselves on not even knowing the
names of the churches, saying in excuse they were soldiers.
The day after the public entry the shops were reopened, and
business was transacted as if nothing more than usual was
going on. The allied armies made the fortunes of the Paris
shopkeepers, and between March 30th and April 5tk the
French Funds rose from 45 to 70 per cent., a higher price than
was quoted since the beginning of the Russian campaign. .

At the Council held early in the morning of April Ist, Alex-
ander told Talleyrand that^ as foreigners, the Allies had no wish
to dispose of the French throne, or to recall princes whom the
nation might not receive from their hands. He must have
the opinion of the army ; the votes of at least four of the
marshals were essential; for, above all things, he wished to
avoid a civil war. Talleyrand at once negotiated with the
army, in the hope of bringing it over to the Royalists. The
sixty-four senators were already informed by Madame de Cayla
and Talleyrand that their only course was to vote for Louis.
At 9.30 they waited on Alexander. He received them with a
short address, beginning softly, but speaking louder as he
proceeded. '^ Gentlemen," he said, '' I am delighted to find
myself in the midst of you. It is neither ambition nor the
love of conquest which brought me here : my armies entered

* Quoted by AliBon.
VOL. ni. 1

60 The Campaign in France and

France to repel an unjust oppression. Your Emperor carried
war into the heart of my dominions^ when I only wished for
peace. I am the friend of the French people. I impute
their faults to their chief alone^ and I wish to protect your
deliberations. You are charged with one of the most honour-
able missions men can fulfil^ to secure the happiness of a great
people, in giving France institutions at once strong and liberal^
which are indispensable in her present state of civilization. I
set out to-morrow to resume the command of the armies^ and
sustain the cause you have embraced. It is time blood should
cease to flow; too much has been shed already. But yet I
will not lay down my arms till I have obtained the peace
which has been the object of all my efforts^ and I shall be
satisfied if in quitting your country I bear with me the satis-
faction of having had it in my power to be useful to you^ and
to contribute to the repose of the world. The Provisional
Government has asked me this morning for the liberation of
the French prisoners of war confined in Russia. I give it to
the Senate. Since they fell into my hands I have done all in
my power to soften their lot. I will at once give orders for
their return. May they rejoin their families in peace^ and
be fiy:ed to enjoy the new order of things.^' One hundred
and fifty thousand men were returned to France, without even
the cost of their maintenance being repaid to Russia. But
this generosity did not please her allies, who thought they saw
a deep design for obtaining the future aid of France against
the liberties and independence of other nations. They mis-
trusted his peaceful professions, but the result proved they
were in error, for the system the Czar inaugurated, condemned
as it was by the so-called Liberal party throughout the Conti-
nent, which only desired Napoleon's return, certainly secured
a longer period of tfanquillity than Europe had ever known.
Napoleon's system fell with its author, having existed only
eleven years ; but Alexander's policy influenced the world till
the end of his life, and for twenty-eight years after it.

As soon as he had held an interview with Schwartzenberg
and various Parisian deputies, Alexander met the council on
the subject of the charter of public rights to be conferred on
France, whoever might be her future Sovereign, and reviewed
the troops ready to proceed the next day against the remains

Capture of Paris. 5 1

of the army at Fontainebleau. He did not retam to the
Elysee Palace^ where the impatient Caulaincourt awaited him,
till six P.M. He was resolved on the necessity of Napoleon's
abdication^ but still not convinced that the Bourbons would
really be acceptable to the whole nation^ particularly as in
such a case Austria showed symptoms of wishing to reclaim
Lorraine and Alsace^ when he had guaranteed the French
territory as it existed before 1790. A Regency might be
possible if Napoleon were exiled^ but not if he was to remain
in France. Such an accession to Austrian influence as their
Archduchess Maria Louisa in the position of Regent would be
balanced by the reconstitution of Poland under Russia^ and
the Prussian acquisitions in Saxony. Ifj therefore^ a Regency
seemed most popular in France^ it might still be made accept-
able to Europe.*

'' I have been busy with your affairs/' he said to Caulain-
court as he entered^ '' and a diplomatist for your sake^ that is
to say^ reserved and ruse. I have avoided engaging myself in
any way, so as to leave things in suspense. I closeted myself
with Sehwartzenberg^ and returned to the question of the
Regency. The discussion between us was warm. But go back
as quickly as you can to Napoleon^ give him a full account of
what passed here, and without any delay return officially the
bearer of his abdication in favour of his son.''

" Sire/' said Caulaincourt, " what will they do with the
Emperor ?" " I hope/' said Alexander, '' you know me
enough to be certain that he will be properly treated. I give
you my word for it."t

" When all was lost/' writes the Duke, '* I found this 'word
was not given in vain. It was to Alexander Napoleon owed
the sovereignty of Elba."

Constantine was obliged to conduct him as privately out of
Paris as he had entered it, and he made the journey to Fon^
tainebleau in five hours. " Well," said Napoleon, " what has

* This conversation is all given on Caulainconrt*s anthority, both repeated
to others at the time, and in his memoirs written after Alexander's death.

t It wonld have snited Austria to have induced the Allies to make
peace before entering Paris, and received the credit of it ; but a peace made
afterwards with Napoleon, in which Russia took the lead, was very dif-
ferent. She knew I^apoleon's vindictive nature, and that she might be
its first victim ; and she now wished to obtain AUace and Lorraine from
the Bourbons as the price o£ the restoration of their dynasty.

1 2

52 The Campaign in France and

passed ? Have you seen the Emperor of Russia ? What has
he said to you ? Tell me everything/'

^' Sire/' said Caulaineourt, '^ I have seen Alexander. He is
not your enemy/' Napoleon made a gesture of doubt. " No,
Sire, it is with him alone the Imperial cause finds any support/'
'' What does he wish — what do they all wish ?" " Sire, your
Majesty is called to make great sacrifices to secure for your son
the crown of France." " That is to say," replied he, in an in-
jured tone, " they will no longer treat with me. They wish
to chase me from the throne I conquered at the point of my
sword ; they wish to make me an object of derision and pity."
He remained for three days undecided, treating as chimerical
the idea of restoring the Bourbons. He refused to abdicate
in favour of his son, and proclaimed to his soldiers : '^ Some
factious men, the emigrants whom I have pardoned, have
mounted the white cockade and surrounded the Emperor
Alexander, and they would compel us to wear it. Since the
Revolution, France has always been mistress of herself. I
offered peace to the Allies, leaving France in its ancient limits,
but they would not accept it. In a few days I will attack the
enemy, to force him to quit our capital. I rely on you — am
I right ?" He was received with cheers and cries of " Yes,
yes !" and on April 2nd gave orders that the head-quarters
should be transferred to Essonnes, on the road to Paris. But
the marshals hesitated. They heard of the establishment of
the Provisional Government in Paris, and Ney in particular
dwelt on the absurdity of sacrificing all their private interests
for the sake of one man. Caulaincourt, as positive of the
firmness of the Czar as before the Moscow campaign, main-
tained a Regency was all that could be hoped. Napoleon
had better accept it and abdicate. On the morning of the
3rd they received the news that the Senate had formally de-
posed him, as he had '^ broken his coronation oath, by levying
taxes without the sanction of the laws, and had disregarded
the interests of the French nation by refusing to conclude the
peace offered by the Allies." The same decree declared the
right of succession in his family to be abolished, and absolved
the army and the people from their oath.

Napoleon was overcome when he received this intelligence,
spread far and wide with the utmost speed. His army, already

Capture of Paris. 5 3

disinclined to encounter the swords of 160,000 foreign troops
fiEist accumulating in Paris and its neighbourhood, was still less'
anxious to engage with its own countrymen, and began to
desert. Barclay published an order of the day to the Russians,
giving notice that they were leaving Paris " to destroy the in-
considerable band of unfortunate men who still adhere to
Napoleon, but let the agriculturists and villagers be treated as
friends/' This was read and commented on at Fontainebleau.
At twelve o'clock, November 4th, Napoleon held a conference
with Berthier, Ney, Lefebvre, Oudinot, Macdonald, Maret,
Bertrand, and Caulaincourt, who all recommended abdication,
though they probably saw it was too late to preserve the throne
to his son. Berthier drew up a formal deed of abdication in
favour of the young Napoleon, with Maria Louisa as Regent,
and the Emperor signed it. He made a point of Ney and
Macdonald going back with Caulaincourt to Paris. ^' He
does not love me,'' he said of Macdonald, '' but he is an honest
man, and for that reason his voice will have more weight than
anv other with Alexander." The commissioners arrived in
Paris on the evening of the 4th, and Caulaincourt succeeded
in speaking a few moments to the Czar before the council,
where he was going to present the abdication in due form.
*' You arrive very late," said Alexander. " Sire," said Cau-
laincourt, " it has not depended upon me. Surely your
Majesty's disposition has not changed ?" " No ; but events
have proceeded so quickly that what was possible yesterday is
not to-day." " But, Sire," said Caulaincourt, " I return the
bearer of Napoleon's abdication in favour of the King of Rome.
Ney and Macdonald accompany me as his Majesty's plenipo-
tentiaries. All formalities are filled up; nothing can now
obstruct the treaty." '* When I told you to make haste," said
Alexander, " I had my reasons. I knew the earth shook under
your feet. When you set out Napoleon's attitude was still
imposing. But to-day it is no longer the same. The
Senate has deposed him. The adhesion of the generals is
arriving from all parts. They hide the eagerness they feel to
break their connection with an unfortunate Sovereign under the
appearance of a necessary submission to the orders of the chief
body of the State, and contrive to join their personal interests
-with legality. But this displays a great accomplished fact.

B4 The Campaign in France and

9
93

Such is man." " Sire/^ said Caulaincourt, " those shameful
exceptions find no echo in the heart of the anny^ which is de-
voted to its master/' " You still deceive yourself/' said
Alexander ; '^ at this very moment Fontainebleau is uncovered
and the person of the Emperor Napoleon is at our discretion.
" What, Sire/' cried Caulaincourt, " are there more traitors ?"
^' People/' said Alexander, ^^ who are desirous of promoting
another cause than yours have now the power to do it. The
camp of Essonnes is raised ; Marmont has sent in his adhesion,
and that of his corps d'armee. The troops which compose it
are in full march on Versailles." " I would not/' writes
Caulaincourt, '^ abuse a Frenchman to a foreigner. I replied,
' Sire, I can only hope for the magnanimity of your Majesty.' "

" The abdication waited too long," said Alexander. " In
politics three days are three centuries, and I must be guided
by circumstances. While Napoleon was supported by his
army collected to march on Paris, powerful considerations
balanced the arguments for the Imperial cause ; but Fontaine-
bleau is no longer an imposing military position, and there are
now below persons of infli\ence who have sent in their submis*
sion. During your absence discussions were raised on the
subject of the Regency ; something had transpired as to our in-
terview, or Napoleon made some revelations at Fontainebleau,
(that was only too true, said Caulaincourt), for they knew the
whole afifair and your project, and all were stirred by it.
Talleyrand, IVAlbert, De Jaucourt, the Abb& Louis and De
Montesquieu took up the question of the Regency, and fought
against it with all their might. M. de Pradt declared neither
Bonaparte nor his family had any party; all France was
Royalist, and demanded the Bourbons. I made some observa-
tions. Then General DesoUes, addressing me personally, said
solemnly, 'Sire, you promised not to treat with Bonaparte,
and on the faith of that assurance we have not hesitated to
declare him deposed and to recall the Bourbons. Now to
proclaim the Regency is to decree the continuation of the men
of the Imperial regime, and in that case the members of the
Provisional Government must request the allied Powers for an
asylum in their States.' "

" The Emperor," said Caulaincourt, " betrayed, abandoned
to the conqueror^ by those men who ought to make a rampart

Capture of Paris. * 55

of their bodies and their swords for him. It is horrible^ Sire I^^
Alexander observed it was a lesson to all Sovereigns. He
pitied Caulaineourt^ and forbore to remind him that a usurper^
or one who owes his throne to the will of the people^ has no
cause to complain when those who gave it choose to take it
away. .Like members of the English House of Commons^
they must please their constituents^ and if they refuse to
identify themselves with the interests of the place they have
chosen to represent^ they have no reason to accuse the voters
of ingratitude when^ as the natural consequence^ they are
deprived of their seats.

Shortly afterwards Caulaincourt and Macdonald entered the
council-room. The Czar^ with rather a careworn air, was
talking to the King of Prussia in the window. A senator^
Beumonville^ stood a little behind them. He had persuaded
the King to reject the Regency. The discussion seemed ani-
mated. On the arrival of the commissioners^ the two
Sovereigns seated themselves at a table in the centre of the
room. '' I remit to the Emperor Alexander/' said Caulain-
court, " in the name of the Emperor Napoleon, the act of ab-
dication in favour of his son, the King of Rome, and of the Em-
press Maria Louisa as Regent/' Frederick William coldly took
the initiative, and answered in measured terms, that '^ subse-
quent events did not permit the Powers to treat with Napoleon.
France had manifested her wish for the return of her old
Sovereigns from all parts; the first corporation of the State,
supported by the assent of its fellow-citizens, had declared
him to have forfeited his throne. The allied Powers did not
choose to mix themselves up in the affairs of the French
Government, and, contrary to the declaration of the Senate,
to recognize Napoleon's right to dispose of the throne of
France."*

Macdonald said Napoleon had still an army to assert the
rights of his son if they chose to use it, ready to shed the last
drop of their blood for him. Alexander answered, this argu-
ment came too late; and the next morning his fellow
commissioner Ney sent in his allegiance to the Provisional
Government. Napoleon received them with most undignified
lage. He would not abdicate ; he would put himself at the

* Souvenirs de Canlainooart

56 The Campaign in France and

head of his armies^ and would rather run the risk of any
calamity than submit to it. He tore up the declaration of
the Senate^ trampled it under his feet^ and called for maps
and plans of the district of the Loire. He even promised
four hours' pillage to a corps he reviewed if they would recap-
ture Paris.* '' 1 have 25,000 of the Guards and Cuirassiers
at Fontainebleau ; I will also bring 30,000 men from Lyons,
18,000 under Grenier from Italy, 15,000 under Suchet, and
40,000 with Soult. They form in all 130,000, and with them
I am still erect.'' Oudinot reminded him he had abdicated.
'^ Ah ! but under conditions," said Napoleon. *' Soldiers do
not understand conditions," said Oudinot; ^'you cannot
depend on the troops." He was at last induced to sign his
name with an agitated hand to another deed, renouncing the
throne " of France and Italy," for himself and his heirs,
"the allied Powers having declared that the Emperor Na-
poleon is the sole obstacle to a general peace in Europe."
" But observe," he said to his marshals, " it is with a con-
quering enemy I treat, and not with the Provisional Govern-
ment, in whom I see nothing but a set of factious traitors."

The abdication was unconditional, and Alexander, considering
that Napoleon had thrown himself on his mercy, resolved he
should not be disappointed. " I have been his friend," he
said, " and I will willingly be his advocate ;" and the terms he
exacted for him from the Provisional Government, and in-
serted in the treaty of peace, were more generous than the
most devoted of the fallen Emperor's partisans could expect.
He thought nothing would be more fatal to the future peace
of France than a host of Bonapartists loose about the country,
reduced from opulence to poverty, and that he had conquered
a right to arrange the affairs of France as was most conducive
to her peace, and consequently to that of Europe. He
required no indemnity for the enormous losses Russia sus-
tained through the war; and as his allies, except England,
had all helped France to inflict these losses, and merely
deserted her at last, when Russia appeared the most formidable
of the two he did not see they had any right to demand a
payment for their assistance in regaining their own indepen-
dence. France also deserved to be taxed to support the family

* Chateaubriand.

Capture of Pans, 5 7

she had chosen to maintain so long as it was crowned with
snccess \ and even if he was unwise in his liberality towards
the BonaparteS; and in depending on Napoleon^s word of
honour^ so often broken, he at least could not be accused of
injustice. At the council held on the subject, he said that in
the income settled on Napoleon they must enable him to
remunerate his military establishment and pension his servants.
When his future residence was discussed, the .French coun-
cillors wished him to be sent far away to St. Helena, Corfu,
or Corsica ; but Alexander decided the Island of Elba should
be ceded to him to enjoy during his lifetime as a sovereignty,
and knowing well enough that no loss would touch him S3
deeply as his Imperial title, he decreed that he should be per-
mitted to keep it.* In addition, he was to receive 2,500,000
francs, or 100,000/., yearly from the revenue of the French
Government ; and 2,000,000 francs were settled on his mother
and other members of his family, to descend to his heirs.
Josephine was to have an income of 40,000/., and retain her
estate of Malmaison. The furniture of the various Imperial
palaces and the crown jewels reverted to France, but all
other movable property belonging to the Bonapartes was to
remain in their hands. Napoleon was to leave for Elba on
April 20th, escorted to the coast by 1500 of the Old Guard, and
might keep 400 soldiers to form a body guard, and a corvette.
This arrangement was made without England's agreement, or
any communication with the ministers of Austria and Prussia,
not yet arrived from Dijon ; and when it was asceii;ained that
Maria Louisa intended to separate from her husband, Alex-
ander assigned her the sovereignty of Parma and Placentia,
to revert to her son. She remained at Bambouillet, to
Napoleon's mortification, as he expected her to join him at
Fontainebleau.

" What must the allied Sovereigns think,'' he said, " of such
an end to the glories of my reign !" He had kept poison by
him during the retreat from Russia, lest he should fall into the
hands of the Cossacks. On the night of April 15th, after con.

* At St. Helena Napoleon pretended that Elba was his own choice,
and that he was allowea to select a principality. This was utterly untrue.
Alexander did not give him his choice, but proposed it for him ; and Lord
Castlereagh strongly protested against it. Napoleon wanted Corfu.

58 The Campaign in France and

versiDg upon his resolution not to suirive his &I1^ he pre-
tended to have taken a dose^ hoping to put an end to himself,
but afterwards said time had weakened its effect^ and it was
not the will of Providence he should die. Judging by his
ordinary charlatanism, and his constant quotation of the ancient
Romans, even to the extent of causing his own bust to be
modelled from that of Galba, and encouraging a supposed clas-
sical style in the dress of the ladies of his Court, it seems
probable that he merely made a feint of destroying himself, bo
that his enemies should not say, after all his boasting, he had
less courage than a Roman, and preferred humiliation to death.
Both his own attendants, and Colonel Campbell, Count
ShuvaloY, General Kohler, and Count Truchsees, the allied
commissioners, bore witness that on his way to Elba he was in
constant fear lest they should have received orders to rid the
world of him for ever. No scene in his life was more painful
than his journey to Frejus, and the want of firmness he dis-
played astonished his foreign escort. He who had never
been known to shed a tear for those on whom he had heaped
calamities^ was capable of shedding many for his own mis-
fortunes. He made so many trivial excuses to procure a
delay, that they began to fear lest he should compel them to
use force. The mob, as he advanced towards the south of
France, exhibited a threatening attitude. At Orange, Lyons,
and Avignon he was assailed with cries of '^ A has le tyran,
le coquin, le mauvais gueux, Vive les Allies, Vive le Roi !''
Even the military cast invectives upon him. At Orgon a
figure dressed in the French uniform was displayed covered
with blood, bearing the inscription, '^ Such shall be sooner or
later the fate of the tyrant /' and women pursued the carriage
from the post-house, one screaming out that her father and her
husband had been killed at Wagram, another that she had
lost two sons at Mojaisk. A man with a wooden leg furiously
gesticulated with his crutch, saying he had been crippled at
twenty years of age. Another shouted out, '^ The taxes made
a pot of wine cost six sous, and all to furnish the butcheries he
calls his wars.^^ They crowded round the vehicle, and
Napoleon, pale and trembling, hid himself behind Bertrand.
At La Calade the people surrounded the house where he was
to pass the nighty and with loud execrations demanded his

Capture of Paris. 59

head. He escaped them by getting out of a back window in
the middle of the night when the street was dear^ and
driving to the next post-house^ dressed in Kohler's Austrian
uniform and Shuvalov^s great-coat^ with the white cockade in
his hat. At another point in his journey he was saved by the
exertions of the commissioners. Count Shuvalov rode by the
side of the carriage^ and asked if they were not ashamed to
insult a defenceless man^ now at their mercy^ who had ceased
to be dangerous. " It woidd be below the French/' he said,
*' to take any other vengeance than contempt.'' The people
applauded^ and Napoleon afterwards thanked him. The
Prussian commissioner also remonstrated with the crowd at
Avignon. " Leave him/' he said ; " it is better the tyrant
should live to be punished by his repentance and his regrets,
which will give him a thousand deaths." However, when the
danger* was past. Napoleon appeared cheerful again, talked of
his plans for dethroning Murat and attacking the King of
Sardinia, and tried to mortify Shuvalov by referring to
Austerlitz. * At Luc he saw his sister Pauline, and on April
28th sailed in an English vessel for Elba, begging to be con-
veyed by this rather than the French ship waiting to take
him. He arrived at his new territory May 4th, and having
carefully ascertained that the people were inclined to welcome
him, he made a public entrance into the town of Porto
Ferrajo on the following day. The ladies who had interfered
with the domestic happiness of Maria Louisa in the Tuileries
shortly joined him, and a crowd of tourists, particularly
the English, favoured the new sovereignty with their visits.
Always eager for notice, Napoleon welcomed them, and,
though speaking of himself as one politically dead, probably to
put them off their guard, he followed his old system of trying
to sow seeds of dissension and mistrust between allies. To
Englishmen he praised England, contradicting former asser-
tions in every word. She was the only nation he respected ;
the country he should have always preferred as an ally, thoujjih
foreign intrigues and untoward circumstances had made them
foes. He had set the same trap with a similar bait for all the
great Powers in Europe, yet there were Englishmen ready to

* Chiteaubriand, Lamartine, Duchesse d'Abrant^s, Coant Waldburg,
Tmchsees, Count Muuster.

I

60 77ie Campaign in France and

fall into it once more. To Lord Ebrington he insinuated that
Alexander was false and insincere, a Greek of the Lower
Empire, evidently wishing to establish a want of confidence in
Russia.* He meant to devote himself exclusively to literature
and science, though he appears not to have paid the Slightest
attention to either during the ten months he lived in Elba.
He had not the philosophy to resign himself to circumstances,
and had led too active a life to take up a sedentary amuse-
ment when still in the prime of health and vigour. The
island was only sixty miles round, and his superfluous energies
expended themselves in perpetually drilling his body guard,
over-legislating for his subjects, whom he soon loaded with
taxes to supply his extravagance, and travelling from one of
his Imperial residences to another (for he established him-
self in four at different points of his small dominions), and the
strictest etiquette was rigidly maintained. On the Empress
positively refusing to follow him, Josephine talked of removing
to Elba, but she died before she had written to him on the
subject.

Nothing surprised Alexander more than the flight of all
Napoleon's servants, even his valet, before he left Pontaine-
bleau, with everything valuable they could carry away ; many
to seek an appointment in the new Court. He said to Caulain-
court, " I believe if we had wished to establish Kutuzov on
the throne of Prance, the people would have cried, ' Long live
Kutuzov.'''

Although the Czar's allies were most anxious to make peace
with Napoleon, both at Frankfort and Ch&tillon, on terms
which would have left him on the throne and enlarged the
ancient boundaries of France, they were now displeased with the

• It is evident from the line of flattery and conciliation which he pnr-
Biied with regard to the English of every degree from the moment he set
foot on board an EngUsh vessel to embark for Elba, and from the offers
he made to England direcUy he landed in France after his escape, that it
had throughout been his mtention to detach the English from the Al-
liance, and not to remain in Elba longer than he could possibly help. As
early as September 21st, 1814, Sir Kcil Campbell writes from Elba to say
that Kapoleon has embarked for the Isle of Pia Nosa with several ladies
of his household, and means to stay there a few days. He had annexed
the island, which was three miles long and one broaa, and waa colonizing
it. " It afforded him opportunities of receiving persons from the Continent
without the means of detecting it." — Supplementary Despatches, &c., of
Wellington, vol. ir.

Capture of Paris. 61

very favourable conditions exacted from the prostrate nation, and
did not see that any distinction should be made between France
under Napoleon and France under a national government or
Louis. Yet Alexander clearly had a right to dictate the terms,
as the march on Paris was entirely due to him ; particularly
when thoHe terms were what he had always held should be
demanded of her to procure the peace of Europe, at a time
when his colleagues thought they were unnecessarily severe.
The handsome maintenance for the Bonapartes was especially
censured, and Castlereagh only acceded provisionally on the
part of Great Britain to the treaty signed between Napoleon
and the allied Powers April 1st, by which he renounced the
throne of France and Italy for ever, for himself and his
heirs, and accepted Elba in its place. The treaty was signed
by Caulaincourt, Macdonald, Ney, Metternich, Nesselrode, and
Hardenberg. Castlereagh objected that it recognized Napoleon^s
title of Emperor, which England had never yet done, and
gave him an independent sovereignty too close to Italy, and
within a few days^ sail of France. He did not consider
Napoleon could be treated as a man of any feeling of honour,
but merely as a condemned criminal, too debased to be con-
trolled by anything but force, and the result unfortunately
proved he was right.

Sir Charles Stewart announced. the arrangement to Lord
Castlereagh in a letter dated Paris, April 5th, 1814 : " The con-
ference of the marshals with the Emperor of Russia, collec-
tively and separately, led to the determination of offering
Bonaparte the Island of Elba, &c. Caulaincourt and Ney
were very violent and strong in their entreaties for a Regency,
Bonaparte having abdicated with that view. The Emperor of
Russia was, however, firm, and gained Macdonald, Marmont
having been already secured.'' He also says, the offer of
Elba was much disapproved by Talleyrand and the French
Government, and the more so the longer it was under con-
sideration.

Count Munster, writing April 20th, from Paris to the Prince
Regent, says, *^ I venture the belief that, if the ministers of
England, Austria, and Prussia had been present at the capture
of Paris, they would not have agreed to the declaration made
in the name of the Allies by Alexander on March 31st (viz..

62 Tie Campaign in France and Capture of Paris.

to preserve old France in its integrity). We shall probably
have to regret for long the consequences which it may produce/'
He calls it ^' ill-advised philanthropy which allowed the tyrant,
who, possessing a very powerful party, retains ample means of
injuring us^ to escape/^ He describes the Legitimists as feeble,
and the Bonapartists both strong and active, the public
treasury empty, and 300,000,000 of pressing debts. The two
last campaigns cost Napoleon 15,000,000,000 francs. Fifty
thousand officers in France all complaining of arrears of pay due
to them, and the want of present means of livelihood. " The
public will complain of a deficit which, though caused hf
Bonaparte, will only be felt under Louis XVIII, Napoleon
has carried his want of delicacy to the point of haggling over
his wines and the carriages he has left. The evils inseparable
from war have exasperated the people, and the Parisians, in
spite of their levity, see with regret the bivouacs of the Allies,
which disfigure all the avenues of the capital. The Duke of
Cambridge, as Governor of Hanover, must be on his guard
when the French under Davoust cross his territory from
Hamburg, and the return of the Swedish troops will be a
new calamity for that State/' Again he writes. May 5th,
" We heard yesterday of Napoleon's journey ; nothing could
have lowered him more than the pusillanimity he displayed.
Now he speaks only of his desire to proceed to England,
and he said to Colonel Campbell, that in the Island of Elba
he should regard himself as an English subject.''*

* Munster's Political Sketches, 1814-67.

CHAPTER II.
1814.

ALEXANDER IN PABIS AND LONDON.

^TAT. 36.

THE hireling flying '^ because he is a hireling, and careth
not for the sheep/^ was illustrated by Napoleon^s family,
who obtained their immense wealth- and their only claim to
rank and dignities in France, yet in her hour of danger showed
no sympathy for the country which had shed its blood to pro-
cure them crowns and riches. She was not their native land,
bat like the goldfields of Australia or California to the
English labourer, who carries the treasure he has amassed in
the colonies to spend where he can best display his new im-
portance. They had no regrets for the tarnished glory of the
nation when compelled, after presumptuous boasting, to yield
in complete submission to its foreign foes. They merely
thought of securing the fortunes their luxurious mode of living
rendered indispensable to their comfort. The large sums
Napoleon hoarded in the Taileries for his personal use in case
of disaster disappeared in the hands of his brothers and him-
self. Jerome fled from Orleans .to Switzerland with a great
amount of public money. Beauhamais transmitted 400,000
francs also of public money to Napoleon when at Elba, and
Madame la Mere had been saving for years in case of family
reverses. Joseph left Paris, though intrusted with its defence,
and fled to Blois, where he tried to persuade Maria Louisa to
accompany him, but on hearing she was resolved to remain till
she had seen her father, he escaped to Switzerland. The ex-
King of Holland had preceded him in the same track, and
Madame la M^re and Cardinal Fesch went to Rome. Josephine
also left Malmaison for a more distant estate at Navarre, where
she was joined by her daughter Hortense. Like the rest, her
chief anxiety was lest she should lose her income and private
property. Yet they could accuse the brave defenders of Paris,

64 Alexander in Paris and London.

and those who had stood out last in opposition to the Allies^
of treason and eomiption.

Bernadotte had advanced as far as Nancy, bat retired again
into Belgium before the peasants who, following Napoleon's
order^ were arming against the invaders. He left the Comte
d'Artois protected by only a few Russian and Prussian conva-
lescents, who might have incurred some danger if the capture
of Paris had not calmed the insurrectionists. As soon as he
heard of it he hastened to share in the triumph. " It is quite
certain/' writes Munster to George IV., April 27th/ " the
Prince of Sweden has not contributed, as he was bound by his
engagements, to the attainment of the great end we have now
attained, I venture to say, in opposition to his wishes. It is
proved positively by the French officers set at liberty by him
to make partisans for himself in the interior of France, as well
as by intercepted letters (amongst others, by a letter from
General Maison, in the possession of Marshal Wrede)." The
Prince arrived in Paris at the end of the second week iu
April, 1814, and at an audience with Count Munster begged
him " to commend his interests to the Prince Regent/' Mar-
mont told a diplomatist at Vienna, that for some time a secret
correspondence was carried on between Napoleon and Berna-
dotte, through General Maison and others ; Bernadotte having
been first detached from the cause of the Allies by Napoleon's
threat that he should never inherit the throne of Sweden. It
was his dearest wish to establish a royal dynasty in his family,
and believing Napoleon's good fortune would not finally desert
him, he caught eagerly at the proposals held out as a bribe,
and stipulated for further advantages if he went over to tue
French. The extreme watchfulness of the Allies, and their
success, prevented him from declaring himself; but he ab-
stained from aiding Napoleon's enemies, and helped him by
indirect means. General Maison's baggage was intercepted
by some Russian troops, and his correspondence with Berna-
dotte fell into the hands of the Emperor. As soon as the
Prince arrived in Paris, Alexander sent for him, and taxed him
with his treachery to the Allies. Bernadotte at first denied it,
but when the vrritten proofs were produced he was confounded,
and owned the truth. Alexander told him he felt that even
the nominal adhesion of Sweden to the common caiise had

Alexander in Paris and London. 65

been of service, so he would forget his conduct and destroy all
recollection of it. He threw the papers at once into the fire,
and the Prince received the promised reward, though the pay-
ment of his subsidy was opposed in England. The Emperor
never referred to the subject again ; but Bernadotte was less
discreet, and gave an account of their interview not only to
Marmont, but to several other adherents of the fallen dynasty.
Francis arrived in Paris on April 15th from Dijon, and, after
an interview with Alexander, went to see his daughter at
Rambouillet. Alexander had already sent his aide-de-camp.
General Shuvalov, to escort her to Orleans, where she wished
to go, and she was completely deserted by her own suite ; but
hearing all was quiet in Paris, she returned to Rambouillet, and
absolutely refused to follow her husband. " History,'' says
Lamartine,* " will blame her, but nature will pity her. She
was too unaffected to feign love where she only felt obedience,
terror, and resignation/' Her married life had been far from
happy, and though her disposition was sufficiently cold to be
in some way consoled by the Imperial dignity, still the aristo-
cratic pride of an Austrian princess felt it was the dignity of a
parvenu Court which surrounded her, and not that of the
descendant of St. Louis. " Her husband's evenings were passed
with the young Polish countess Walewski, whom he had car-
ried away from her husband and her country, while Maria
Louisa employed her solitude in painting German views, in
singing German songs, and sighing for the private life and
domestic happiness of a German hearth." And the Countess
Walewski was by no means her only rival. The neighbour-
hood of Josephine also annoyed her. Napoleon still consulted
his first wife about his public affairs, and often went to see
her. It was a Mahometan arrangement she had hardly con-
templated, and she had never quite got over his rough greeting
on their first interview. On receiving her father she gave
him the warmest welcome, but possessed sufficient sense of her

• " Perhaps," he adds, " in becoming the wife of a soldier of fortune,
she thought that she should obtain a husband far removed from the vices
of the old Courts of Europe ; on the contrary, Napoleon permitted himself
an almost unequalled licence.*' No one who has read Napoleon's remarks
on wrimen, as given by Las Cases (June, 1816) and others of his bio-

Saphers, could blame Maria Louisa for her want of attachment to him.
e always advocated polygamy.

VOL. III. F

66 Alexander in Paris and London.

aitaation as the wife of the fallen Sovereign to object, or to
feign to object, to receive Alexander, to whom she said he
owed his destruction. Francis overcame her scruples, as the
Czar was expected to drive over to Rambouillet early the next
morning, and he accordingly arrived. She greeted him very
coldly, but " he was so agreeable, and so much at his ease/'
writes one of her ladies, " that we were almost tempted to
believe no serious event had happened in Paris. He asked to
see the child, whom he kissed, and took on his knee -" while
Francis, with a grandfather's pride, admired the little prince's
curly hair, and dtiring the visit talked chiefly of the boy's
sharp remarks, the age at which he cut his teeth, and other
interesting details of his infancy. Alexander returned to
Paris the same morning, but Francis remained with his
daughter for a day or two, and she soon left for Vienna, after
showing very plainly, particularly to Hortense, who had joined
her, that she did not wish for any more of the society of her
husband's family. The ex-Queen of Holland wrote from
Navarre to one of her ladies, Mdlle. Cochelet, who had remained
in Paris, respecting her future prospects. *' I do not doubt,"
she said, " that the Emperor of Russia will be generous to me.
I have heard much good of him, even from the Emperor
Napoleon, but if I was formerly curious to be acquainted with
him, I do not wish to see him now. Is he not our conqueror r "
Mdlle. Cochelet answered, that Alexander was the resource of
1^1 in trouble. '^ He conducts himself so well that he inspires
universal esteem, and we forget the conqueror, only seeing the
benefactor. His conduct is admirable. He only sees those
people who require to see him on business, and for the neces-
sary transaction of public affairs. Women cannot tax him
with seeking their society." Talleyrand tried to interest
Alexander for Hortense, telling him she was the only one of
the Imperial family he esteemed. She was known to be an
unhappy wife, and when the Bonaparte family was no longer
in power many stories of the past were circulated about
Queen Hortense. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, Constan-
tine's aide-de-camp, had formerly received much kindness from
her and from Josephine, who helped him to avoid entering
the French service a short time before the Russian campaign.
He was anxious to serve them with Alexander, who heard

Alexander in Paris and London, 67

what he had to say^ and told him he esteemed Josephine^
Eugene, and Hortense because their conduct towards Napoleon
was superior to that of many of his courtiers. He sent a
message to Josephine, requesting her to return to Malmaison,
where Madame Junot found her oppressed with fears for
her fortune, and dreading lest she should be obliged to
leave Prance ^ but a day or two afterwards Alexander called
upon her and reassured her. Horteuse hearing of this visit,
requested an interview with him. He advised her to stay in
Prance to console her mother, instead of settling in Switzerland
or in Martinique. In a second visit Madame Junot found
Josephine quite cheerful again, full of her interview with
Alexander, and hardly able to say enough in his praise. She
had been advised to write a humble letter to Louis, throwing
herself at his feet, and asking his mercy, and consulted the
Czar on the subject. He advised her to do nothing of the
sort. " You will only lower yourself,^^ he said. " Your main-
tenance will be settled by the treaty, so you have nothing
further to fear /' and he composed a letter for her to write to
the King, which expressed sufficient gratitude without servility.
He told Constantine she reminded him very much of the
Empress Catherine, both in her voice and appearance, for
Josephine had become very stout in her old age^ her colour
was high, and she was threatened with apoplexy. The King
uf Prussia announced he should bring his two sons to dine
with her, and she wrote to Alexander, requesting him to come
and help to entertain them with his brothers Nicholas and
Michael. Hortense also joined the party, and her two little
sons. Napoleon Louis and Louis Napoleon, were in the draw-
ing-room with their governess when the visitors arrived.
The boys stared at the tall stature of the foreign princes as
they entered the room. Alexander was fond of children, and
after talking to the ex-Empress, spoke good-humouredly to the
boys, who informed him when they were grown up they
meant to be soldiers, and to fight against the Prussians and
Cossacks. The King of Prussia was not inclined to be
friendly with any one, old or young, who bore the name of
Napoleon, and never very talkative, looked at them in moody
silence as they chattered to the Emperor ; so their governess,
afraid lest they should say something more displeasing to Imn^

f2

68 Alexander in Paris and London.

drew them away. The younger one, afterwards Napoleon III.,
hearing that Alexander was a generoas enemy, without whom
they would have nothing more in the world, slipped a ring
into his hand the next time he called, which the Czar promised
to keep as long as he lived.

That dinner party at Malmaison included the representar-
tives of the chief power of Europe for three-quarters of a
century. Besides Alexander, and Josephine, her husband's
good genius and the promoter of his early fortunes, there was
Nicholas, a tall stripling, the future heir of his brother's
greatness, the only Sovereign in Europe who protested in
1830 against the expulsion of Hbrtense and her sons from
Home, and whom Louis Napoleon himself styles the model
ruler in his " Idees Napoleoniques." Little did Alexander think
that the boy on his knee was destined to be the first
to break the peace he had inaugurated at so much cost in
Europe, that he might " repair the road to Moscow ;" and as
little did the Czar imagine that the first empire on which he
would direct the power of the restored dynasty would be Russia.
But the avenger stood by in the young Prince William of Prussia,
the first Emperor of restored Germany, a stalwart youth, who,
as only a younger son, was perhaps the least considered of
the party present. Were the victories in the Crimea and the
forts of Sebastopol, still uncaptured after a year's siege, a suflS-
cient return to France for the calamities of Sedan, the loss of
Alsace and Lorraine, the Emperor of Germany proclaimed at
Versailles, the second exile of the Bonapartists, and. the second
capture of Paris ? The policy and bloodshed of the First
Empire during nearly fourteen years, only ended in leaving
Russia supreme in Europe. The policy of the Second Empire,
equally resulted in impoverishing France, and led to the con-
solidation of Germany, and the great exaltation of Prussia's
political position in Europe.

It is oflen said that Josephine died of a broken heart,^ but

• " The death of the Empress Josephine," says La Valette, "was the last
gift of her astonishing fate. Her extravagance was such that she was
always embarrassed, and if the new Government had fonnd it difficult to
pay the pension settled on her by the treaty of April 11th, it would have
placed her in great difficulties. She was neither high-minded nor well-
informed, but possessed sound judgment, cunninff, an inimitable grace,
and her Creole pronunciation added to her charms.

Alexander in Paris and London. 69

she had, apparently, quite recovered her cheerfulness, except
now and then when some act of the new Government
affronted her; for Napoleon's overthrow did not affect her so
much as their divorce. Alexander saw her again on May 4th,
when she gave him an antique cameo, presented to her by
Pius VII. on the day of her coronation, and engraved with
the heads of Philip and Alexander of Macedon. He at first
refused to deprive her of it, pointing out a cup of common
porcelain, painted with her portrait, which he said he should
prefer. He observed she did not look well, and on his return
to Paris sent Dr. Wylie to see her. The malady passed off,
but ten days later she was attacked by a malignant sore throat,
which caused her death on May 29th. Alexander called to
inquire after her that morning, and at her request was shown
up into her room, where she was attended by Eugene and
Hortense ; but he did not stay more than a f6w moments, as
he saw she had not many hours to live. He sent an aide- de-
camp to represent him at her funeral, and Napoleon did not
conceal his annoyance, both at this attention and at the part
he had taken in consoling her decline.

The army of Northern Italy yielded to the Allies, and the
country was invested by the Austrian army after the fall of
Paris, so Beauhamais came to France to obtain some spoil in
the general settlement of Europe. The wife of Jerome,
Catherine of Wiirtemberg, was left in Paris, where Alexander
called on her, as she was his first cousin, and promised her an
escort to the frontier. Her father wished to separate her
from her husband ; but for the first time since her marriage
she had maternal hopes, and preferred to join him in Switzer-
land. She received a passport signed by Alexander, and
Talleyrand provided her with a detachment of French cavalry.
On the road their captain robbed her of her money and
jewels, and she wrote in the greatest indignation to her
father, intimating that it was the fault of Alexander, who was
much irritated, and ordered immediate proceedings to be taken
against the offender. Talleyrand protected the robber captain,
on the ground that the jewels were partly public property, and
were restored by him to the Crown. The affair was not con-
cluded till 1818, when the offender, Maubreuil, was condemned
to live years' imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs, but he

70 Alexander in Paris and London.

escaped to England. In the absence of the Bonrbons and the
Bonapartes, Alexander was Sovereign of Paris^ and petitions
for situations in the new government^ pensions^ and even
offices at the palace, flowed in from all quarters to such an
extent that he inserted an advertisement in the Moniieur,
requesting the petitioners to address themselves to the Pro-
visional Government. Still no small part of his time was
occupied in attending to complaints. He treated the French
people with so much delicacy that they began to forget they
were conquered^ and were inclined to claim as a right the
privileges conceded to them by the excessive liberality of their
enemies. One of the marshals asked what rank his wife
would have in the new Courts and expressed surprise that the
army was not consulted as to the Constitution. Alex^uder
said he gave orders to the military, but did not receive any
from them. The widow of Junot, the Duchesse d'Abrantes,
sent to request an audience with him. She was still in deep
mourning for her husband, so Alexander, being aware of her
case, which was a very sad one, returned for answer he would
call on her. Junot had been publicly ceusured and dis-
graced for an alleged military error by Napoleon, who, when
he made an unsuccessful plan, attributed it on system to some
officer, and obliged him to bear the penalty. He had served
in aU the wars of the Republic and the Empire, and was
severely wounded more than once in the head, which, added
to mortified vanity, affected his brain, and he destroyed him--
self. Madame Junot boasted that her family, though
impoverished, belonged to the race of Comneni, but her only
property was an estate torn from the Crown lands of Prussia.
The Emperor arrived punctually ; and the Duchess, astonished
at his condescension, presented herself with her children at
the top of the staircase. " Sire,^^ said she, " these children have
lost their father, and in losing him they have lost all. They
have no fortune if they lose their estates — the price of the
blood of their unhappy father.^' The Emperor led her to an
armchair, and seated himself on a small one opposite ; but as
she offered to rise, he said, '' Remain where you are : I must
place myself so that I can hear you well. You know I am
deaf. First, what do you want with me 7 You must explain
your business/' The Duchess related it. ^^ Write a note;

jf

Alexander in Paris and London. 71

he said, " detailing everything, and I will give it myself to
the King of Prussia/' He looked at Junot's portrait, and lis-
tened to his exploits and devotion to his master, telling her
Napoleon had been ill served both by Savary and Maret. The
first had tampered with his own (Alexander's) attendants, and
carried on the most extraordinary proceedings. Since he came
to Paris, Savary had asked for an audience twenty times, but
he had refused to see him. He could not refiise one to his
wife, who had also urged it, and he was to see her the next
day ; though if it was to ask him to excuse the Due d'Enghien's
death* to the Bourbons, that would be impossible. During
the conversation Alexander rose and reseated himself conti-
nually, and walked up and down. He had only just driven
from the door when Savary appeared, having concealed him-
self in another room during the interview. She told him
what the Emperor said about the police in his palace.
Savary was very^ curious to know how he had discovered it,
" I must have been betrayed,'' he said. After some conversa-
tion they arranged a plan *by which Napoleon, who was then
still at Fontainebleau, should be brought into Paris, to her
house ; and, on some pretext or other, Alexander should be
induced to call there again, and suddenly confronted with
him, in the hope that he might yet be brought round to his
cause. There was no surveillance, and passports were easy
enough to obtain. Napoleon might be disguised. Alexander
would refuse a formal demand for an interview, but he was so
accessible that Napoleon might easily be introduced into his
presence before he was aware of it. Savary said Napoleon
would gladly embrace any opportunity of making an impression
upon him. A letter was despatched to the ex-Emperor, pro-
posing this scheme ; but before it reached Fontainebleau he
had signed the treaty of April 11th, and formally abdicated his
throne.

Hardenberg called on Madame Junot to tell her that, '' at
the pressing solicitations of the Emperor of Russia, the King
had consented to let her keep the Castle of Achen, but he
had added the condition that her sons should he naturalized as
Prussian subjects ; and he brought papers for her to sign with
that object. She was most indignant, and preferred to lose
* Savary bad been principally concerned in it. See ante.

72 Alexander in Paris and London.

the estates ; and relates* it as a dishonourable act on the part
of the King and Minister ; though, as they were extorted from
Prussia by conquest, the same law now restored them to their
ancient master; and the Allies might have rewarded their
own ofiGcers in a similar way, by grants of estates from the
crown lands of France. Even Hardenberg's private library
and family mansion had been wantonly sacked and destroyed
by the French, who respected no private property in Prussia in
1806. Alexander thought the King should have given her the
alternative of a pecuniary compensation j but he felt it diffi-
cult to interfere further in a matter concerning Prussia only,
and contented himself with offering her a residence in Russia.
*' You would be well received, madame,'' he said ; " and might
convince your countrymen that we are not such barbarians as
they commonly seem to suppose.'^

On April 3rd Alexander and the King of Prussia visited
the Opera, when they were received with thunders of applause.
A melodrama called the Triumph of Trajan was played in their
honour, and for many subsequent pights. These verses were
also sung night after night at all the theatres, and warmly
cheered : —

" Vive Alexandre,
Vive le Roi des Rois !
SanB nous donner des lois,
Ce Prince aaguste,
A le triple renom,
De h^ros, de juste.
Et nous rend un Bourbon/' <&c.

Alexander did not take much pleasure in theatrical perform-
ances, and only went to the theatre once more while he was
in Paris, and then it was on a State occasion in company with
Louis ; but his brothers and the King of Prussia constantly
resorted to it, the last often going incognito, and indulging in
most unusual peals of laughter at the broad wit often displayed
on the Parisian stage. Nicholas and Michael were much
admired by the Parisians, who called them " the white angels
of the north,^' from their fair complexion and curly hair.
They were lodged with their tutors in a part of the H6tel
Infantado; but their mother had permitted them to join the
army with great searchings of heart, and with so many injunc-
tions to Alexander, that he only let them visit at Prince Schwart-

Alexander in Paris and London. 73

zenberg's and Lord Castlereagh^s^ except when he accompanied
{hem himself. When Louis entered the capital he had not
seen since 1791^ he expressed his displeasure to Madame de
Cay la at the enthusiasm with which the foreigners were
received in Paris. " It would be better/' he said, " to observe
an impassible reserve without any demonstration. A calm
and dignified carriage would have inspired them with respect
for the nation, and they would not quit Paris with the idea
they have held for the last fifty years, that the French nation
is the most frivolous and immoral in the world. You ladies,
above all, have exposed yourselves to these reproaches. The
Allies in a body have appeared to you so amiable, that there
are many rumours not to the advantage of the French ladies.^'
*' But, Sire,'^ she answered, " the Parisians wished to show
their joy and their gratitude to the Allies for having brought
back your Majesty to them. They have freely ofiered to the
Allies what neither the tyrants of the Republic nor the heroes
of the empire were able to obtain. Not one of us can regret
what she has done for our good friends'the Allies.^'

" The Princes,'^ writes Mdlle. Cochelet, " who were at the
head of the allied armies were naturally the principal objects
of the Royalist ovation, though they were very indifferent to it.
The Emperor of Austria was too much occupied with the
future of his daughter and of his grandson; the King of
Prussia too serious and too cold ; all their coquetries
were therefore directed on the young Emperor of Russia.
But there also their enthusiasm was ill recompensed. Alex-
ander lived in a retreat which appeared to imply an absolute
want of confidence/^ He said the Royalist ladies " were weary-
ing in their exasperation against the Republicans and Impe-
rialists, and instead of enjoying their triumph, only think of anni-
hilating their enemies. They are hardly sane on the subject.''

On Easter-day, April 10th, a service was held for the troops
by Alexander's order on the Place de la Concorde, the spot
where Louis XVI. was beheaded. Notice was given by pla-
cards posted about the streets that salvoes of artillery would
be fired when it was ended. The more serious among the
French flocked to the ceremony, though it was conducted by a
bishop and priests of the Greek Church. The King of Prussia,
Schwartzenberg^ and other foreign princes^ besides the Emperor

74 Alexander in Paris and London.

and Grand Dukes of Russia^ were present. The Sovereigns
remained uncovered throughout, all alike kneeling, princes and
soldiers, when the benediction was pronounced, somewhat to
the surprise of the Parisians, who were accustomed to see
little reverence and much indiflerence on the part of their
rulers towards religion, even during the old days of the Bour-
bon dynasty.

The Comte d'Artois was the first of this family to appear in
Paris in the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom*
till the arrival of the King. The Senate decreed only five
days before that " Louis Stanislaus Xavier should be pro-
claimed King of the French, on condition that he swore to
accept and enforce the new constitution.'' Monsieur made a
triumphant entry into Paris, but Alexander, acting as he had
done by the King of Prussia at Berlin, gave orders that the
allied troops should not appear on his road, that it might look
like a national rejoicing; and Lord Castlereagh, with the
English mission^ were the only foreigners who joined the
train. As soon as he was installed in the Tuileries, Alexander
visited him and advised him to adopt the constitution in a
friendly spirit, as it alone could render the restoration popular
and durable. The Royalists attracted the common people in
the provinces by proclaiming no more wars, no conscription,
and no taxes on the wines. But a concession was necessary
to the educated classes ; that would be found in a constitution ;
it would also throw the odium of measures, not always agree-
able to the masses when retrenchment was necessary and
there was so much to restore, upon their representatives rather
than on the dynasty succeeding the empire. The country
was still in a state of ferment, but the guarantee of a consti-
tution would appease it. The Count answered by vague
promises, which, by Alexander's repeated advice, were con-
firmed in a speech to the Senate ; but he knew the disfavour
with which it would be regarded by the King. Louis was
now a widower, sixty years of age, and very infirm; a man
of rather heavy wit, but well informed, a professed freethinker,
indolent, and a bon-\ivant, though less narrow-minded than
many of his race. On taking leave of the Prince Regent he
told him his restoration was entirely due to England, whicb,

• April 12th,

Alexander in Paris and London. 7 5

though a compliment^ produced a painful impression in Russia.
They arrived with the old Prince de Conde and the Due de
Bourbon at Compiegne, April 27th^ and there the King re-
mained^ to avoid meeting Alexander. He was jealous of his
popularity^ and did not wish to be second in Paris. The
Marshals and several deputations at once waited on him^
enabling him to act a comedy more gratifying to them than
to the attendants who surrounded him when in exile. During
bis first audience he appeared sinking from age and infirmity^
and when his courtiers pressed forward to sustain him he
repulsed them^ and supported himself by the Marshals^ sayings
*' It is on you, sirs, who have always been Frenchmen, that I
shall in future look for strength.^' Alexander came over to
see him in a plain carriage, only attended by Czernichef and
one servant, leaving Paris in the middle of the night, sleeping
most of the way — a confidence rarely shown by private people
on the highways of France at that disturbed period. Louis
received him very coldly. He often forgot benefits, but never
an injury. He could forget the royal reception he received
in Russia, and the princely income Paul settled on him, or
that Alexander had given him a home when his life was
threatened in Prussia ; but he could remember when Paul, at
the instigation of Napoleon, ordered him to leave his do-
minions in mid-winter, and that although Alexander remon-
strated with his father on this particular occasion, he was the
original promoter of the peace between the Czar and the
First Consul of France. He pointedly walked into dinner
that evening before three royal visitors, including the Emperor,
who took it good-humouredly, only observing to Czernichef^
*' Even we northern barbarians have learned more politeness.''
Before Alexander left Compiegne he tried to persuade
Louis to give up his idea of counting his reign from the hour
his little nephew died of neglect in the precincts of the
Temple, and to recognize the reign of Napoleon. To the
Bourbons he was nothing but General Bonaparte, his career
was to be wiped out of history. The Czar said, public opinion
no longer regarded the traditional rights of the Bourbon
blood, or the mysteries of the Divine right of crowns — a
doctrine now repudiated, for it had been too often broken
through. He advised Louis to consent to reign in virtue of

76 Alexander in Paris and London.

a new title by a voluntary call fJpom the nation^ expressed by
the Senate^ in exchange for a constitution accepted from its
hands. Far from such a title being derogatory, it was glorious.
Necessity and prudence must induce the King to recognize
the existence of the Government which ruled Prance during
twenty-four years. Why antedate his reign? Would not
history record the Convention, the Directory, the Consulate^
and the Empire ? If royal families had their intrigues, nations
had as many, and a liberal policy alone could silence them in
France. He dwelt on the power and importance of the
ambitious Kepublicans and Bonapartists, who would all be
brought over to his cause if they were allowed some partici-
pation in the honours and government of the State.

Louis had taken an oath to the constitution granted by his
brother — an oath still binding upon him if he counted his reiga
as unbroken since Louis XVIL ; but surrounded by elderly men,
he was indignant at receiving counsel from a prince no older
than his nephew, the Due de Berri, who was still sowing his
wild oats^ and regarded by his uncle as little more than a
child. He listened impatiently^ and interrupted Alexander
several times. " I am astonished to have to recall to an
Emperor of Russia that a crown does not belong to subjects.
What right has the Senate, the instrument and accomplice of
all the violence and falsehoods of a usurper, composed of his
most servile and most criminal creatures, to dispose of the
crown ? Does it belong to the Senate ? And if in fact the
crown did belong to it, would it offer it freely to a Bourbon ?
I am too enlightened to attach to the Divine right the
meaning superstition formerly attached to it ; but this Divine
right, only for you as for me a law of good sense, has
passed into immovable policy in the hereditary transmission
of the right of sovereigns. Till a few days ago I was an
infirm old man, an unfortunate exile, reduced for a long time
to beg a country and bread from strangers — such I was till a
few days ago ; but I was the King of Prance, and this is why
your Majesty is here : this is why an entire nation, who only
know me by name, has recalled me to the throne of my
fathers. Yourself/^ he added, looking hard at Alexander,
" in virtue of what title do you command those millions of
men whose armies you brought to deliver my throne and my

Alexander in Paris and London. 77

country ? " Alexander refrained from a dispute, but pleaded
the weight of circumstances. Yet Louis was still inexorable.
" No/' he said ; '' I will not wither the name I bear, or the
few dajrs I have to live. I will not buy a changeable opinion
with the sacred right of myself and my house. I know I owe
to your victorious arms the deliverance of my people ; but if
these important services put the honour of my crown at your
disposal^ I would return into exile.'' Then Alexander men-
tioned the engagements, half admitted by the Comte d'Artois.
Louis did not deny them, but said he could fulKl them by his
full and free authority, instead of accepting them as a con-
dition £rom his subjects. The same day Francis, Frederick
William, and Bernadotte arrived, but all their prejudices were
in favour of an absolute monarchy. They dined with Louis,
and on Francis making rather an untimely remark on the
fickleness of Frenchmen, Bernadotte said : " Make yourself
feared. Sire, and they will love you ; only think of honour and
appearances with them. Have a velvet glove on an iron
hand."

Talleyrand received from the Senate the charter to present
to the King, who answered, " If I accepted a constitution in
the session where I swore to observe it, you would be seated,
and I should remain standing."^ He hoped to ^ear out
Alexander's patience, and there was as much negotiation on
the subject as had opened the gates of Paris. Talleyrand
privately supported his opposition, as he hoped to be virtually
supreme in the royal councils ; and in spite of a promise to
Alexander, day after day passed and it was still withheld.
At last the Czar said he had irrevocably fixed his departure
from France for the end of the month, and the charter must
be accepted by the King before he left, as the Russian troops
would otherwise remain. It was proclaimed the next morning,
and Louis, as he signed it, observed with happy tact that it
was his gift to the nation. Alexander mingled incognito with
the crowd to see the procession on the King's public entry into
Paris, and kept his own troops out of sight. " The National
Guard," writes Count Munster, ''shouted 'Vive le Roi;' the

• The very fact that Napoleon, on his return from Elba, found it neces-
sary to promise to maintain the constitution, showed how acceptable it
was to the nation at large.

78 Aleosander in Paris and London.

troops of the line preserved a gloomy silence. In the evening
(May 31 st) the town was badly illuminated ; however, they say
it was no better in Bonaparte^a time. The manner in which
the King extricated himself firom the constitution is generally
approved/'

Madame de Stael returned to Paris among a flock of
royalist and republican exiles in the wake of the Allies.
" As I approached it," she wrote to the Duchess of Saxe-
Weimar, ^^ Germans, Russians, Cossacks, Bashkirs were to be
seen on all sides. The discipline maintained prevents them
from doing any harm, except the mental oppression we could
not help feeling. I entered the city as if in a painful dream.
I esteemed the strangers who had given us freedom, I admired
them ; yet to see Paris occupied by them, the Tuileries and
the Louvre guarded by troops to whom our history, our great
men were less known than the last Khan of Tartary, was
indeed a grief."*

• " The Czar," says her biographer, " more than either of the other Sove-
reigns, showed a chivalrons spirit towards France. Far from being disposed
to pride himself on his success, the religious spirit of the young autocrat
saw a lesson of Providence in the event whicli expiated our victory and
inflicted humiliations upon us in our turn, and he showed a courtesy and
politeness of which the extraordinary delicacy was deeply felt by the
]ieople of Paris." Madame de Stael had thought Napoleon invincible,
and that the whole world must submit at last. Alexander held no such
superstition. " The means he employs are most human," he often said,
" but he has never been honestly opposed on land except by Bussia."
" Far from Alexander's merit being exaggerated by flattery," continues
Madame de Stael, " I should almost say thev did not render him justice,
because he undergoes, lilie all friends of liberty, the disfavour at-
tached to that opinion in what is called good European society. They
are never weary of attributing his political views to personal calculation,
as if in our days disinterested sentiments could no longer enter the human
heai't. It would cost me much to own that the overthrow of Bonaparte
was due to Alexander, who decided contrary to advice to march on Paris,
if he had not conducted himself generously towards France. I have
talked several times with him at St. Petersburg and in Paris at the
moment of his reverses and of his triumph. EquSly simple and calm in
both situations, his mind, penetrating, just, and wise, has never belied it-
self. His conversation was utterly unlike an ordinary ofBcial conversa-
tion — no insipid questions, no reciprocal embarrassment. His conduct in
the war was as brave as it was humane, and his own was the only life he
exposed without reflexstion." . . . . " Thanks to his enlightenment," she
writes a few years later, "all possible ameliorations are being gradually
accomplished in Bussia. But there is nothitig more absurd than the re-
marks we hear from those who dread his lights. This Emperor, so much
praised by the friends of liberty, why does he not establish at homc! the
constitutional regime he recommends to other countries P It is one of the
thousand-and-oue tricks of the enemies of human rights to try and pre-

Alexander in Paris and London. 79

Alexander was much struck with the contrast between the
restored Bourbons, the emigrant nobility, and the people they
were called upon to govern after a separation of twenty-four
years : yet when the Senate and municipalities had once
greeted Louis a^ their king, they became his obsequious slaves,
too thankful that their former disloyalty should be forgotten
to make any attempt to assert the popular rights; and the
courtiers of Napoleon, whose birth would never have entitled
them to a place in the household of Louis XVI., now felt
gratified and exalted by admission to an audience with his heir.
Count Beugnot, the new Minister of the Interior, owns to this
sentiment, and that he felt on being introduced to the Comte
d'Artois a sensation he had never known with Napoleon, '^ but
then Napoleon was not a descendant of St. Louis.^' The mis-
fortunes of the Duchesse d^Angouleme could blind no one to
the fact that she was little calculated to bind the contending
factions of the Bonapartists and Bourbons, or to make the re-
stored regime acceptable to those who had presided over the
Republic. Altbough Alexander inserted an article in the
treaty confirming the titles of the nobility created by Napo-
leon, she openly laughed at their pretensions and disputed their
claim to bear arms. At a dinner at the Tuileries, where Louis
entertained the Sovereigns, she sat next to Francis, and per-
ceiving the Duke of Baden opposite, said : ^^ Is not that the
Prince who married a relation of Bonaparte^s ? "What weak-
ness to ally himself with that general V' ignoring that the

vent what is possible and desirable for one nation, by asking wbj it is not
actually so for another ? There is as yet no Tiers Etat in Rassia, how
then coold a representative government be created there ? The inter-
mediate class between the boyards and the people is almost entirely
wanting. He could augment the power of the great nobles, and in this
respect undo the work of Peter I. ; but it would be recoiling instead of
advancing*, for the power of the Emperor is a social amelioration. Russia,
in respect to civilization, is only at that epoch of its history where the
power of the privileged classes must be limited by the Crown. Thirty- sir
religious communities comprehending pagans, thirty-six different nations,
are not united, but spread, over an immense territory. The only tie which
binds them is respect for the Sovereign and national pride." — ubl Revolu-
tion Fran^aise.

It is a proof of the careless mode in which M. Thiers derives his infor-
mation that he has quoted as genuine a letter without Hignature and be-
lieved only to be forged, enclosed among some communications to Castle-
reiigh from Mr. Craufurd, repudiated by the supposed writer, Madame de
Stael, in which she complains that, thanks to Alexander's vanity, France
is committed to a twenty years* war with England.

80 Alexander in Paris and London,

Sovereign she was addressings as well as the King of Bavaria,
who sat on her left, had allied themselves with " that general/'
Weakness was a word very frequently in her mouth. Louis
shrewdly attached himself to the cause of Prance directly he
entered Paris, and became quite antagonistic to Alexander, as
the chief representative of the Allies. '^ My dear friends the
enemies," he styled them ; and indulged in a series of sarcastic
witticisms, which the Emperor quietly parried while the other
guests stood by, knowing the King expected them to laugh
with him, but hardly daring to join at the expense of their
ruler de facto, Alexander could not mistake the coolness with
which he was received at the Tuileries, so he kept away. He
attended the weekly reception of the Duke of Orleans in the
Palais Royal ; but his days were spent in business : he retired
early, and at four a.m., when the streets were still deserted,
took his usual promenade. He would not quit Paris while
92,000 of Napoleon's soldiers were still in garrison in Ger-
many, Flanders, Italy, and Spain ; but when these had sur-
rendered and were safely disbanded he was anxious to depart.
Hamburg, Magdeburg, Wesel, Mayence, Barcelona, Antwerp,
Mantua, Alessandria, and Bergen-op-Zoom yielded to the
Allies during the months of April and May, and Alexander
had hoped to conclude the entire settlement of Europe in
Paris, but the opposition he received from Great Britain and
Austria on the subject of Poland prolonged the conferences ;
their ministers hoping by perseverance to compel him at last
to yield, till the meetings were adjourned at the special request
of these two Powers to the autumn at Vienna, and the result
of this delay was the campaign of Waterloo.*

Czartoriski joined Alexander in Paris in April after an ab-
sence of five years, and had frequent interviews with Baron

* " The magnanimotiB efforts of the Emperor of Bassia/' writes Sir
Charles Stewart, " his unparalleled firmness and constancy, his multiplied
victories, and his unrelenting perseverance?, crowned with ultimate gene-
rosity and moderation towards France, turned aside gradually the current
of admiration from Great Britain, and directed the gratitude of the world
as due to the Bussian Emperor. When the settlement of France and the
treat V of Paris came under discussion it may be affirmed, without ex-
aggeration, that the Emperor of Bussia stood upon the most elevated
pinnacle of human grandeur ever attained by a monarch. The glory of
(jreat Britain was eclipsed before him ; but for the sake of Poland he was
ready to resign all the reputation, character, and glory he had acquired,
and defy the sentiments of Europe."

Alexander in Paris and London. 81

Stein on the subject of the union with Poland^ Prussia being
willing to yield her share of the Polish territory if an equiva-
lent was secured in Saxony^ which had been considerably en-
larged by Napoleon at her expense. But Austria was resolved
to keep Galicia and Cracow^ and demanded the circle of Tar-
nopol^ ceded to Alexander in 1809^ though she offered to give
up her share of Poland entirely to Russia if allowed to recom-
pense herself with Alsace and Lorraine. But Alexander would
not hear of this. He had given his word that the ancient
French territory should not be curtailed \ and when Francis
mentioned the subject to Louis XVIII.^ he told the King if he
stood firm he would assist him to keep it. Another difficulty
arose with England^ who wished to retain some of the ancient
French colonies now in her hands^ so that the French must be
given an exchange in Europe. The adhesion of Murat to the
cause of the Allies before Napoleon's abdication was a great
complication^ for ^his kingdom had been secured to him by
Austria^ and this was considered most unjust by the old Royal
family of Naples. Austria also claimed a portion of her old
territory, ceded to Bavaria ; while every prince who had gained
power by allying himself with Napoleon, now expected to keep
his ill-acquired possessions as a reward for joining the Allies
when he had no longer a choice. The British ministers de-
manded that Talleyrand should be admitted to the conferences
on the part of Louis XVIII., who ought not to be treated as
a defeated enemy, hoping to gain a partisan in him against
the views of Russia ; and this added to the conflicting interests,
for it was soon clearly perceived that the French Government
thought it might gain prestige, if not material, by an open
quarrel with the Allies and another war ; and the marshals,
foreseeing future disturbances if the 70,000 officers which the
French army contained were disbanded without pay or employ-
ment^ eagerly hailed such a prospect, and informed the King
he had 450,000 men at his disposal, ready to enforce his inte-
rests. At another audience with the Austrian Emperor, Louis
mentioned this fact. Francis answered, if the King wished a
new war he could easily rekindle it, but he perhaps did not
foresee when it would end. Louis's tone softened in conse-
quence ; nevertheless he sent the Marquis d'Osmond with
a note to the Conference of May I3th> stating that he was
VOL. ni. o

82 Alexander in Paris and London,

entitled to territories containing 1,000,000 inhabitants more
than were comprised in ancient France, and the new boundary
marked out only gave him 212,611 ; rejecting a small portion
of Savoy, " as he could not accept territory belonging to the
King of Sardinia, who was nearly related to him/' Yet this
new boundary gave to France several districts lying within her
provinces, formerly German, such as Montbeliard, Avignon,
Sambre, and Meuse, &c., besides a department of Savoy, all of
them having been annexed by the French Republic. Louis
asked for a portion of Belgium (which would have left the
other half at his mercy) instead of part of Savoy, and when
refused gladly took Savoy. Talleyrand claimed Luxembourg,
and on being thwarted tried to obtain more Savoyard territory.
It was evident France would do her best to slip out of every
engagement unless enforced by superior power. Prussia,
Holland, and Italy claimed the pictures wrested from them,
and now adorning the Louvre; but Louis said his subjects
would impute to him the pillage of the museums of Paris if
the Allies insisted on reclaiming their own property, and his
popularity would not stand it. The Allies with great liberality
agreed to forego all pecuniary State claims if some compensa-
tion was made to private individuals ; and the pictures and
objects of art were left. But even with this great concession
France could not be honest, and declined to recompense the
ruined merchants at Hamburg, whose bank Davoust had com-
pletely pillaged ; and as he had paid his soldiers for three months
in advance with the contents, this last payment was clearly a
French debt to Hamburg. Prussia claimed 130,000,000 francs,
due for contracts of merchandize of all sorts which she agreed
to furnish while the two countries were allied during the war
with Russia, and of which the price was to be deducted from
the Prussian war contribution, which was never done. Louis
consulted Alexander, who thought the war had annulled the
debt, the two countries being restored to their original posi-
tions, which was entirely to the advantage of Prussia ; and this
decision was final : but Hardenberg and Stein were very angry
about it ; for, as the King was willing to adopt Alexander's
views on Poland, they thought the Czar might have given an
opinion contrary to strict equity for the benefit of Prussia.
Austria and Prussia went so far as to admit the advantage of

Alexander in Paris and London, 83

Lis frontier extending as far as Kalisch^ but they had no in-
tention of allowing Poland to be restored even in name ; and
hoping he might be able to confer with the Cabinet ministers
during his visit to England^ where he had been invited by the
Prince Regent^ and convince them that his plan of a restora-
tion of Poland under the Russian Oovemment was not entirely
dictated by ambition^ he agreed to let the article in the treaty
of peace which concerned her be adjourned to a future day,
though he fairly told the Allies he should yield nothing of his
claims if it even compelled him to brave all Europe.

The prospect for his country produced a letter from the
yeteran Kosciusko to Alexander, who had not seen him since
the time he accompanied Paul to give to him his unconditional
release. He was in Paris at the time of its surrender, but
remained in obscurity till warmed into enthusiasm by the
unexampled moderation Alexander exhibited, and by the sight
of the excellent discipline of the Russian troops. " Sire,'' he
wrote, " if I venture from my retirement to address my urgent
prayers to an exalted monarch, a great captain, and above all
a protector of humanity, it is because I regard as the greatest
of men him whose magnanimity equals his genius. In the
confidence this conviction inspires, I supplicate that your
Imperial Majesty, the benefactor of mankind, will grant an
unrestricted amnesty to Poland ; and that on declaring your-
self King of Poland, you will give her a Constitution similar
to that of Great Britain. Should my prayers be listened to,
Sire, I have only one more boon to ask, that I may be per-
mitted, though ill, to throw myself at your feet to take the
first oath of fidelity to you, and to render that homage due to
you as my sovereign and the benefactor of my country.'*
Alexander's answer was dated from Paris, May 3rd, 1814 : —

*' It is with great satisfaction that I reply to your letter.
With the aid of the All-powerful I hope to bring about the
restoration of the brave nation to which you belong : I have
taken a solemn engagement to do so, and its welfare has
always occupied my thoughts. Political circumstances have
alone raised obstacles preventing the execution of my designs.
These obstacles no longer exist. Two years of a terrible but
glorious struggle have removed them. A little time, and with

o2

84 Alexander in Paris and London.

prudence, the Poles will recover their country and their name ;
and I shall have the happiness of convincing them that, forget-
ting the past, he whom they consider their enemy will realize
all their wishes. It will be the greatest satisfaction to me to
have you as my assistant in these labours. Your name^ your
character^ your talents will be the best support I could have.

" Alexander/'

The Czar found more difficulty in compelling Louis and his
ministers to make the provision for the Bonaparte family than
with any other part of the engagement. Foreseeing this, he had
caused it to be inserted in the treaty ; but Louis was backed
by all the rest of the Allies. Even before Alexander quitted
Paris it was asked if Napoleon was really to be an indepen-
dent Sovereign at Elba ; and the Czar replied, he had given
his word, and could not retract from it. Jerome's wife had a
protector in her father, the King of WUrtemberg ; Eugene, in
the King of Bavaria ; but the ex-Queen of Holland, uncon-
nected with any dynasty, was despised by everybody now that
ancient nobility and legality was the fashion ; and the Court
party even affected not to recognize her marriage, as it was
solemnized in the days of the Republic, and spoke of her as
Mdlle. Hortense de Beauharnais. She complained of this to
the Emperor, who said he would remedy it by asking Louis
to create her Duehesse de St. Leu, an estate already secured
to her through his good offices. The Prime Minister, Blacas^
strongly objected to this title ; and although Louis dared not
refuse it, he delayed signing the brevet, hoping to avoid it alto-
gether. The evening before Alexander left, he sent his aide-
de-camp to the Tuileries with orders not to leave the Palace,
even if he was forced to sleep there, till the brevet was given
into his hands. When it came, it was made out to MdUe.
Hortense de Beauharnais, a circumstance which much annoyed
her ; but Alexander told her to take it, and assume the title it
gave her ; though he advised her strongly not to visit at the
Palace, .where she might only find herself subjected to similar
insults. The temptation was too great for her to resist it, and
following the counsel of less judicious friends, she sought an
introduction at the new Court when the Allies had retired, and
found herself treated most contemptuously, as Alexander anti-

Alexander in Paris and London. 85

cipated. She is said to have left it in tears^ and shortly after-
wards went to Baden to visit her relative, the Grand Duchess.
This Princess was summoned to France by Napoleon when
it was clear Baden must join the Allies. She had not been
happy as a wife, but had two daughters ; and, for their sake,
disobeyed the command. She went to meet Alexander at
Mannheim in 1813; and, with tears, threw herself down
on her knees before him, appealed to their relationship, and
entreated him not to enter France, and to have compassion on
her adopted father. He could seldom resist a woman's grief;
but he had proof that a good deal more of the affairs of Russia
were transmitted to Napoleon through Stephanie and the
Court of Baden than ought to have gone beyond the frontier,
and in a cool but courteous tone, he desired his pretty sister-
in-law to rise and wipe her eyes ; and then more kindly told
her his plans were irrevocably fixed ; the time for altering
them had passed when the French army crossed his fron-
tier on its way to Moscow. The Duke of Baden joined
the allied army in Paris ; and there were many, especially at
the Tuileries, who tried to induce him to annul his marriage.
He was a weak man, and was almost persuaded ; but Alexander
told him he had no right to divorce her unless she also wished
it ; and the Duke, hoping for his support at the Congress, took
his advice. During the spring and summer of 18J4 she was
in great agitation, aware this subject was discussed in the
family, and distressed at the fall of the Bonapartes. The
Empress Elizabeth arrived early in the year at Carlsruhe to
the home she had not seen since she left it a child. She
found, indeed, the mild climate and beautiful scenery of the
valley of the Rhine, for which she had sighed so long in the
palace at St. Petersburg ; but everything else was changed :
discord and anxiety distracted the once happy domestic
hearth. Her mother was divided by the various sentiments
of her relatives ; and the Duchess went into paroxysms of
grief over the allied victories in France ; Elizabeth felt little
sympathy for her sister-in-law, whom she treated with disdain.
She had no reserve in boasting of her husband's triumphs before
Stephanie ; and not being eclipsed by the Empress Dowager, she
enjoyed her position as the wife of the most powerful Sovereign
in Europe. Her sister^ once the beautiful Frederika of Sweden^

86 Alexander in Paris and London.

now a worn invalid^ was at Carlsruhe^ and they were joined
a little later by Hortense. These envied the Empress^ not
only for her husband's rank ; but, in spite of their differences^
he had always been her kind friend. Yet, though occupyin;?
the same palace in St. Petersburg, they had latterly only met
in public ; and, for the sake of keeping a rash promise, she
had shut herself up and refused to see him before his departure
for the army. She followed him through Germany as the
war receded towards the West, and pressed to be allowed to
join him in Paris. This he declined : her arrival would neces-
sitate a Court, and he was anxious to depart as soon as the
political affairs were wound up. The Empress and Hortense
early conceived a mutual aversion. The tongue of scandal,
once busy with the ex-Queen, had not always spared Stephanie,
and the Empress showed she had heard these reports. Hortense
felt isolated. She tried to make a friend of the Queen of
Sweden, by observing their situation was similar ; but
Frederika resented such a comparison. Hortense then sought
to revenge herself on the Empress by asking her one day
publicly at dinner, with affected simplicity, whether she was
well lodged at St. Petersburg, implying that she believed
her to be in the position of the Princess of Wales, for it was
well-known the sumptuous Imperial residences in Russia were
second to none in Europe. As the Empress saw the purport
of the question it embarrassed her, and Hortense was after-
wards blamed by the rest of the family for trying to insult
the wife of her benefactor. The Empress's maid of honour
continued to correspond with Madame Svetchine, who wrote
from Russia, " I share your admiration for our dear Emperor.
No one knows what he is worth till tried by the vicissitudes
of life, and perhaps happiness is more necessary than suffering
to temper the soul and give it all the energy of which it is
susceptible. This memorable epoch will have, I do not doubt,
a marked influence on him. He is now above other men iu
glory ; he will be raised above himself through the influence
of religion. He has never wished anything but what is good,
and he will now venture upon all that he has wished. Let
us hope we see the dawn of the finest day for Russia, Ah I
if his soul, touched by the impression of virtue, was also
brought back to her who has suffered so long with such noble

Alexander in Paris and London. 87

and resigned calmness I I cannot tell you the extent to which
I have been pained by that cessation of correspondence of
which you spoke to me. What it has not even been granted
to her to taste in its fulness^ the joy of such happy events/'
In another letter^ written on hearing of *a Russian victory^ she
alludes to a^slight misunderstanding between Mdlle.Stourdza and
the Empress. " The last news received from the army, which
announced the victory gained by our dear Emperor himself^
has reanimated hearts strangely cast down by the continual
transitions of hope and fear. May God crown so many efforts
and such devotion by a rest dearly bought. The word glory
no longer moves me; the cord it touched in my heart is doubtless
broken^ and I would willingly beg a little peace for the world
and myself^ even though it should be a little dull. The death
of M. de St. Priest has deeply affected me ; that of Count
Strogonof (one of Alexander's early friends) has been much
felt. The Count de Lagarde writes from Vienna that the
Austrian enthusiasm for the Russians is at its height : to the
plates on the table all is k la Cosaque. In Berlin a Rostop-
chine bonnet was introduced.'' She speaks with great compas-
sion of the Empress for the loss of ail her children^ ^^ her lips
having approached this cup of felicity^ only to feel the bitter-
ness of its being refused." She counsels the young maid of
honour to bear the inequalities of her temper with amiability.
'^ Think of the deep and constant wound in her heart. In
such arid^ bitter trials the soul of an angel would succumb.
How easy it is to be gentle and good in success and happiness !
Madame de R. (the Empress)* has always appeared to me a
most interesting being ; but she has never been so frequently
in my thoughts as since the vagueness and uncertainty into
which her hopes and our own have returned. I love M. de R.
(the Emperor) with faithfulness and justice. I honour his
fine qualities^ but I own to you^ I am surprised at his resist-
ing^ as he does> to the most holy and most amiable seductions
of virtue. How can any other thing entangle him by its
attraction, above all when that other thing is so different, so
inferior to him ?" . . '' How many thanks to return/' she writes
again on the news of the capture of Paris, '' and how much

* Madame de Svetchine sent her letters by the Court courier, so sh ^
thought it prudent to disguise the Imperial names.

88 Alexander in Paris and London.

our dear Emperor deserves them ! How glad I feel to have
always recognized in his soul what he displays now, with so
much glory^ and a glory so fine and so pure 1 He is truly the
hero of humanity : he realizes in his conduct all my dreams
of moral dignity ; and' I find at last in this union of religious
feelings with liberal ideas^ the resemblance so long sought to
a type I have borne in my mind, and till now might have
set down as a fantastic beiug, the creation of an exalted
imagination. Alexander has delighted me. Even on the
throne, in the tumult of difierent interests, of unchained pas-
sions, he could remain a man, a Christian, and a philosopher^
pursuing the wisest and most generous plans, and putting into
execution all that there is most beautifiil on earth, from the
noblest equity to the most touching modesty; and that young
and admirable sage is our master. The Russians are too happy
if they always feel his price to the same degree. The fall of
Napoleon is such as we might expect from the Divine justice.
His death on the field of honour would have nobly closed an
unworthy career. As to the happy change worked in the
mind of the French nation, it has not astonished me. With
them, to change is to remain the same/^

The invitation the Prince Regent sent to Alexander to visit
England did not include the Empress, who was connected
through her deceased sister, the Duchess of Brunswick, with
the Princess of Wales ; and apart from other considerations,
it was difficult for any one at that time to be on friendly terms
with both the Prince and Princess. Lord Castlereagh re-
quested Lord Liverpool to represent to the Prince that it
would be desirable to extend the invitation to Francis and
Frederick William. The last, wrote Count Munster, on April
27th, was uneasy on the subject; the Emperor of Austria,
though he wished for the compliment, had little desire to
visit England. He feared he might not be well received.
The invitation was sent and accepted by the King, but declined
by Francis on the ground of the inconvenience of a sea
voyage, and of his return to Vienna being necessary for the
settlement of his affairs in Italy, where the first measure he
took was to suppress the Legislative Corps and the Senate.
The treaty of peace remained to be signed, and was not ac-
complished till May 30th, by which time Alexander saw that

Alexander in Paris and London, 89

unless tlie Bourbons altered their system it could not last.
Lafayette met him one evening at Madame de StaeFs. '^ His
noble and simple manners/^ he "writes, " pleased me much
when he entered this select society. He was polished, ami-
able, and above all, liberal. He complained of the servility
of our journals. ' We can do better than that in Russia,' he
said. I assured him he misjudged the nation. He com-
plained of the wrong turn his intentions for our liberty had
taken ; he had found in France neither patriotism nor sup-
port ; the Bourbons had only the prejudices of the ancient
regime ; and as I answered that misfortune must have improved
them, he said, ^ Improved ! they are uncorrected and incorri-
gible. There is only one of them, the Duke of Orleans, who
has liberal ideas, but for the others, never hope anything from
them.' ' If that is your opinion. Sire, why have you brought
them back?' * They came in on every side,' he said; ^ I wished
at least to stop them till the nation could impose a constitu-
tion upon them. They gained on me like an inundation.
You saw me go to the King at Compiegne ? I wished to
make him renounce his nineteen years of reign, and other
things of that kind. The deputation of the Corps Legislatif
was there as soon as I was, to recognize him from all time
and without conditions. The deputations and the King were
agreed. It is a failure. I shall leave Paris much dis-
tressed.' "

On May 8th Alexander visited Versailles, accompanied by
Nicholas and Michael. The wounded Russians had been con-
veyed there, and he thanked all who had charge of them,
besides writing to the mayor. " I have been informed, sir, of
the zealous, kind, and constant attention paid at Versailles to
the wounded of my armies. I am very sensible to a zeal
which does honour to humanity. I am also grateful to your-
self personally, and wish to express these sentiments and my
esteem. — Alexander."

Two attendants had been faithful to Napoleon up to the
moment of his departure for Elba, Caulaincourt and a Polish
officer named Kosakoski, who, believing Napoleon would be
able to restore Poland, and that his fortunes would again be
in the ascendant, had not availed himself of the general
amnesty of 1813, to all those who should quit Napoleon's

90 Alexander in Paris and London.

service within two months^ and his large landed estate in Poland
was sequestered. Napoleon gave Caulaincourt a letter of recom-
mendation to Louis^ but for Kosakoski he could do nothing.
. The Pole boldly presented himself at a levee Alexander held
in Paris. When his name was announced^ the Emperor asked
him if he had not followed Napoleon to Fontainebleau.
" Yes, Sire/' he replied, " I was with him till he left it, and if
he had asked me to accompany him, I should not have hesi-
tated.^' Alexander was pleased with his frank reply, and asked
him what he desired, and hearing it was the restoration of his
property, signed an order to that effect at once. Caulaincourt
was not equally fortunate. Louis refused to give him any
public appointment, though Talleyrand tried to include him in
the list of peers, and Alexander expressed a wish to the King that
he should be accrediled to his Court, on Louis saying he would
send any ambassador agreeable to him to St. Petersburg.
t- In Tain Caulaincourt published a denial of any share in the
murder of the Due d'Enghien in the public papers, and Alex-
ander, at the request of Talleyrand, defended him from this
charge to Louis. The King could not forgive the efforts
he made to obtain the proclamation of Napoleon II., while
Alexander thought that if Russia could forgive her national
wrongs the Bourbons might pardon offences towards their
dynasty. ^^ Attachment and devotion to a Sovereign in mis-
fortune is not so common that we should be otherwise than
touched by it,'' he said. " Great good may it do him,"
answered Louis. '' Alexander wanted to put France out of a
condition to hurt, but not to crush her. He was master at
home," says Caulaincourt, ^^ and in granting satisfaction to the
public spirit of Russia, very much irritated against France, he
could yet consent to an honourable peace for Napoleon,"
His sensitive temperament had suffered so keenly in the period
of Russia's calamities that he gave his victim credit for more
acute feeling than after-events showed he possessed, and pitied
him when he thought of his own misery after a defeat.

Talleyrand reproached the Czar with not knowing his own
power, for if he made it a personal request to the King that
Caulaincourt should be admitted into the House of Peers,
Louis dared not refuse him. But the King, hearing the
request would be made, softened Alexander by talking of the

Altxander in Paris and London, 91

sad position of a Sovereign who^ after a revolation^ was free
neither when he granted nor when he refused favours ; and
this was uttered with so much pathos^ and was so true^ that
the Czar urged it no more^ and offered CaulaiDCOurt an estab-
lishment in Russia.

The members of the Institute of France wished to be pre-
sented to Alexander^ and their senior professor^ M. Suard^
requested Beugnot to explain to him that the ancient French
Academy^ which received a visit from Paul and Peter the
Great^ formed the second class of that learned body. ^^ I was
invited to dine with the Emperor/' writes Beugnot on the day
he had appointed for his reception there. " This Sovereign of
so many men and countries^ who was at Paris at the head of
100^000 soldiers^ was not a little embarrassed at the part
he had to play before the Institute. He seriously thought his
reputation in some measure depended on it. The fame of
ancient French literature had long reached St. Petersburg.'*
Although as a youth Alexander had displayed literary tastes/
he had no time for their cultivation siuce he came to the

m

throne, and for the last two years had lived amidst the dis-
tractions of a camp life. As he expressed it, he had been so
long out of the way of anything of the kind, that he felt
unfitted to address them. It was gratifying to the subdued
French savants to see they were still regarded as a power by
a great monarch, and especially by one who possessed more
erudition than his military contemporaries; for on such an
occasion Napoleon would pompously have given them a few
borrowed platitudes, which would have been applauded by his
illiterate courtiers as the speech of a sage. Alexander had too
much respect for literature to insult it by an inferior dis-
course ; and he disliked a public address, because he could
seldom hear it. The President, M. Lacretelle, made a speech ;
to which he answered fluently, though briefly, in more elegant
French than many of the Frenchmen present. " I have
always admired the progress the French have made in litera-
ture and the sciences. I do not impute to them the misfor-
tunes of their country, and I feel great interest in the re-
establishment of their libertv. To be serviceable to mankind

*

is my sole object, and the only motive which brings me to
France/' He wished also to speak a few words to each

92 Alexander in Paris and London.

member of the Academy on his special subject, as the members
were severally introduced ; and he asked Beugnot to inform
him of those subjects. " Unhappily/' writes the Count,
'* my voice is not clear, and the Emperor is very hard of
hearing, and the result was some embarrassment and confusion
in the compliments ;"* but in the eyes of the Institute the
immense honour of haranguing the Autocrat of all the Russias
made up for everything. During the evening, M. Suard, who
was near eighty, trembled as if he had been only twenty.
Besides the Institute, Alexander visited all the useful public
establishments in Paris. At the Mint, a medal was struck
before him, bearing on one side the head of Peter the Great,
and his own on the reverse. He was shown another, engraved
during Peter's visit to France in 1717, representing him and
the young Louis XV. He was particularly pleased with the
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and invited the Abbe Sicard,
who directed it, to dinner, to explain the mode employed for
their education. When they separated he gave the Abbe the
cross of St. Vladimir, and afterwards founded similar insti-
tutions in St. Petersburg and Warsaw.

The Polish Princess Jablonowska gave a ball a few days
before Alexander left Paris, and invited her compatriots there
to meet him. He recommended himself to them by taking
part in the valse, which was quite the Polish national dance ;
and, according to Raikes, brought it fairly into fashion in
England, where the elder portion of society had looked askance
at such a substitute for the slow quadrille and stately minuet.
The Poles were essentially a gay, dancing people ; their last
sovereign, Stanislaus, boasted that, if compelled to abdicate,
he should gain his bread as a dancing-master ; and in joining
their amusements, Alexander perhaps found the surest way
to the national heart. The English ministers continued to
ignore the Czar's pretensions to the Crown of Poland, though
it was recognized throughout the Contiuent.f

♦ Cotint Beagnot*s Memoirs. — Vide Choiaeul-Gouffier, &c.
t An Enfflish diplomatist wrote from Vienna, Jnne, 1814, " that the
Russian ambassador had taken all the Poles under his protection, and his
wife bad presented several Polish ladies at the last Drawing-room. Tbe
Poles in general are pleased at becoming a kingdom attached to Russia
for the present, in the idea that it will lead to their future independence.
Some of the more reasonable look upon this as illusory ; but it is re-
markable among all the Poles (and I see a great many), there is not one

Alexander in Paris and London. 93

•

Lord Castlereagh wrote to Lord Liverpool from Paris,
May 15th : *' The Emperor wishes his means of embarkation to
be at Boulogne ready the last day of May. He takes with
him Count Tolstoi, Platof^ and four aides-de-camp. He said
nothing about the two young Grand Dukes, and I said nothing.
He expressed a wish to land quietly, and not to be received
with form.*'

Sir Charles Stewart informs Wellington, May 26th, that
'' letters received by the Emperor from his sister, the Duchess
of Oldenburg, who has taken a very decided part in the
questions agitating at Carlton House, will induce him to carry
over his two younger brothers, the Grand Dukes Michael and
Nicholas. The Prince of Orange has just arrived in Paris.''

These letters refer to a subject then causing considerable
agitation in the political circles of Europe — the marriage of
the Princess Charlotte of Wales, heir-apparent to the British
throne. She was engaged to the hereditary Prince of Orange^
for several years an exile, who served on Wellington's staff in
the Peninsula. England announced her intention of sepa-
rating Belgium from France and annexing it to Holland ; and
this marriage, by placing both shores of the entrance into the
German Ocean eventually under the same crown, and increas-
ing her influence on the Continent, where she already possessed
Hanover, was not regarded favourably by foreign statesmen.
The Empress-Dowager was very anxious for the settlement of
her younger children. Her daughter she had reserved for a
French prince ; and as soon as Louis was established on the
throne, arrangements were set on foot for a marriage between
the Grand Duchess and the Due de Berri, though he was
nearly eighteen years older than his proposed bride. The
Empress was annoyed when she heard of the Princess Char-
lotte's engagement, for she had hoped her third son Nicholas
might secure this prize. He was younger than the Princess ;
and if this were an objection there might still be a union with
England through the widowed Catherine and one of the Eng-
lish princes, or perhaps the Prince Regent himself. It was
believed an engagement of this nature, or a resolve to disturb

attached either to Rassia or to any other Power, but as that Power may
ultimatdy favour their views for the independence of Poland.*' — Wel-
lington iJespatches.

94 Alexander in Paris and London.

■ - ■ ■

the one between the Prince of Orange and the Princess Char-
lotte, was the motive for her journey to England in the spring
of 1814. She accompanied the allied armies as far as Frank-

- fort, and then made her way to London, where she arrived the

' very day Paris capitulated to her brother.* Stockmar is

inclined to exonerate her from the usual charge of making
the Princess discontented with the Dutch prince, and says the
dislike took root long before she arrived. The Princess of
Wales was exerting herself to prevent the marriage ; and the

f Prince Regent even accused his daughter of deputing a Rus-

sian lady going to Paris to negotiate a marriage between

' herself and one of the Grand Dukes. He could not prevent

her from seeing Catherine, but seemed averse to it. When
the Princess expressed her objection very strongly to the Dutch
alliance, the Prince of Orange, who seems really to have been
attached to her, went over to Paris and had several private in-

^ terviews with Alexander. Whatever may have been the

' cause, Alexander apparently tried to reconcile the pair to

each other (perhaps the Prince of Orange had explained that
one article in the marriage contract prevented the permanent

* union of England and Holland) ; and he did not add to the

complication by bringing either of his handsome brothers upon
the scene, but left them in Prance, to pursue their travels over
the most celebrated battlefields of Europe. Perhaps another
reason was, that Nicholas had just confided to him the admira-
tion he felt for the Princess Charlotte of Prussia, whom he
met in Berlin on his way to France — the first time in his life

* " She was the lady," writes Miss Knight, " who was so mnch talked
of for the Prince Regent if he got a divorce from the Princess. In the
evening there was a large party at Carlton House and a concert, which
annoyed the Grand Duchess so much that she left the room abruptly. It
seems that music overcame her nerves. She was said to have frequent
faintings, and to have scarcely slept at all siQce the death of her husoand.
Her figure was shght and well formed, her complexion good, her eyes fine,
and her manners dignified." The Princess Charlotte, she adds, was
enchanted with the Grand Duchess, whom she styles a sensible woman,
and who told her young friend she thought of marrying the Archduke
Charles (a proposal to that effect having been made by the Emperor of
Austria to Alexander in Paris); on \vhich the Princess replied, many
people supposed she was to marry the Regent if he could have found cause
for a divorce. She answered, she was so much attached to her brother
the Emperor, that for his sake and the public good she would have done
'vvhatever he wished, but that now she had seen the Begent she could
never think of marrying him.

Alexander in Paris and London. 95

that he had quitted the environs of St. Petersburg. The King
was paying a short visit to his capital in the midst of the war^
and had there received the younger brothers of his ally. The
Princess did the honours of her father^s palace with a grace
and self-possession which surprised their guests^ who were in-
troduced to a happy domestic circle, where all courtly cere-
monies were banished in the intercourse between children and
their parent. To be fully appreciated, Frederick William re-
quired to be seen in his own home. The Imperial youths were
charmed with their reception, with the Princesses, and even
with the solemn King ; but some time passed before Nicholas
imparted his hopes to the Emperor, who felt so strongly the
misery of an ill-assorted marriage, that he was resolved not to
press any alliance upon his brothers, however desirable it might
appear to be politically. He had known the Princess of
Prussia firom a child, and such an alliance would suit Russia \
but it at once checked any thought of securing the English
Princess for his own family, as Michael was a mere boy.

The Russian army was leaving Paris* when the Emperor
quitted Prance. He signed the peace of Paris May 30th, in
which an article, inserted expressly on the demand of England,
stipulated that no member of Napoleon's family should ever
be recognized again as the Sovereign of France. Russia was
the only Power which remembered this article thirty-seven
years later, when Napoleon III. ascended the French throne,
and incurred his deadly enmity, while England eagerly em-
braced his offer of an offensive and defensive alliance. Such
was the end of the British policy of 1798 and 1801, which had
entailed years of bloodshed on Europe and increased the Eng-
lish National Debt by 400,000,000/. To acknowledge a ruler
chosen by the people, instead of adhering to a legitimate
dynasty, regarded as an insane freak of Paul, and a departure

• The Bnssian reviews were nsaally attended by crowds of Parisian
ladies seated in barouches, lanshing and talking with the officers. Mr.
Fraser Tytler describes the last^neld in 1814 : — " The Emperor Alexander
ffalloped along the Une, and was received with lond and enthusiastic
nozzaa. He is certainly an uncommonly handsome man, and there is
mildness and benignity in his expression. He is a man to be adored by
his troops. Both he and his brother Constantine ride very gracefully, bnt
Constantine is too fond of showing off his horsemanship." The Bussian
Guards wore moustaches, a fashion the Emperor had not adopted. The
uniform of the Cossack officers was excessively rich and handsome.

96 Alexander in Paris and London.

from public morality on the part of Alexander, is now the re-
cognized policy of the Continent ; and Nicholas, misled by the
odium they incurred for their enlightened views on that
subject, and unobservant of the changes since he had shared
during his boyhood in restoring Louis to the throne of France^
pursued the course in 1852 which was followed by England
throughout the first two decades of the present century, and
he paid for the error with his life.

Alexander left Paris June 2nd^ and at Boulogne found a
squadron under the Duke of Clarence, ready to convoy him to
England ; but the King of Prussia was a day later, and he
employed the interval in going on foot to various objects in the
neighlx)urhood, while an immense crowd trailed after him.
They landed at Dover at 6.30 p.m., June 6th. A volley of artil-
lery greeted them from the castle; and besides the English
noblemen sent by the Regent to meet them, the Mayor and
Corporation were waiting to present Alexander with the usual
address. He answered in English, ^' Although, gentlemen, I
understand your language, I am not sufficiently acquainted
with it to reply to you in English, and I must therefore request
those gentlemen of the deputation who speak French to be my
interpreters to those who do not.^' He continued in French :
^^ I am much pleased to find, by the sentiments you express,
that the services rendered by my armies in the great cause in
which we have been engaged are so highly considered by the
British nation. I can assure you that by no means the
smallest gratification I derive from the late campaign is the
opportunity it affords me of visiting England, a country for
which I have long felt the highest esteem. Gentlemen, I beg
you will accept my thanks for this mark of your attention, and
my best wishes for the welfare of your town, and assure your-
selves I shall always endeavour to preserve a cordial friendship
between England and Russia.'^

The King of Prussia brought his two eldest sons, his nephew,
and two cousins, besides Hardenberg; and Alexander was
attended by Nesselrode, and preceded to England by Barclay,
Prince Dolgoruki, and others. Mettemich also arrived to re-
present Austria. The crowd remained assembled all night at
Dover, under the windows of the hotel where Alexander was
lodged ; but he left for London very early the next morning

Alexander in Fans and London, 97

in his ambassador's carriage, and Frederick William followed
in one of the stage-coaches. On entering London the spec-
tators were disappointed by the carris^e taking an unexpected
route. It was contrary to his principles to avoid them, as he said
more than once it was *' part of a Sovereign's duty to exhibit
himself if it pleased anybody to see him /' but it was now due
to the unpopularity of the Prince Regent, who was blockaded
in Carlton House by a menacing mob during a great part of
the morning, and afraid to stir out to meet his guests ; but in
the course of the afternoon he left the palace quietly and
joined them on the road, returning to London in the same
carriage with the Emperor, and giving orders that it should
drive by a most circuitous way to Pulteney's Hotel in Picca-
dilly, where Alexander was to lodge. Rooms were prepared
for him at Cumberland House, the residence of a prince he
particularly disliked, but he only used them for holding levees
and audiences. He had stated his wish to put up at the hotel
where his sister was residing ; and his suite, including Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, had lodgings found for them in the
neighbourhood at his expense. He thought he should be less
trammelled by State etiquette, and be able to visit the useful
public institutions, and observe the working of English law
and the Constitution ; but a series of f^tes and entertainments
were arranged while he stayed, and no fashionable reunion was
thought complete without his presence ; so that he found to
his regret he had small leisure for more serious undertakings,
and was obliged to be satisfied with a superficial view of merely
the upper classes of Great Britain.

*' These great people,'' wrote a lady from Dover, " have so
inured themselves to hardships that they travel without a re*
spite, and their greatest indulgence is a truss of straw when
they stop to collect their followers. The Emperor would have
no other bed ; and his sister desired not to have a bed,but a sofa,
to sleep on." Yet the fatigues of the two years' campaign were
almost equalled by a London season ; and wild-looking Cossack
messengers continued to arrive during his visit, bringing de-
spatches and other correspondence from Russia, which more
than once occupied their Imperial master throughout the whole
night.

The next day Alexander walked in Kensington Gardens,
VOL. III. a

98 Alexander in Paris and London.

visited Westminster Abbey and the British Museum^ held a
lev6e^ and attended the Queen's Drawing-room j afterwards
dining with the Prince Regent. On the 9th he rode before
breakfast through the City and Southwark, and in the course
of the morning drove with his sister to the London Docks,
when the mob took the horses out of the carriage and drew it
themselves the whole way. In the afternoon he attended a
Chapter of the Order of the Garter, where the ceremonies were
completed which had been provisional at Toplitz ; and when
he walked in procession by the side of the Prince Regent, with
the train of his robes borne by Lord Yarmouth, it was ob-
served he seemed embarrassed by his novel dress. On the
10th he went to Hampton Court and the Ascot Races, where
the Prince Regent, wishing to show him the ceremony of ordi-
nary knighthood, conferred the honour on his physician. Dr.
Wylie. The aged Queen Charlotte with her daughters were
present, and the Emperor afterwards dined with them at Frog-
more, and visited Eton. On the 11th he went to the Bank of
England, and received an address from the Lord Mayor, to
which he replied with a fluent speech. ^' His English is as
good as my own,'' wrote Lady Malmesbury. In the evening
he dined with the Prime Minister, to meet the Prince Regent,
with whom he adjourned to the opera. They had scarcely
seated themselves when the Princess of Wales appeared with
her suite in a neighbouring box. Alexander immediately rose
and bowed to her, the King of Prussia did the same, and the
audience cheered them ; upon which the Regent bowed to the
audience; so what was feared might be an awkward coinci-
dence went off very well.*

On the 12th, being Sunday, Alexander attended mass at the
Russian Chapel in Welbeck Street, and afterwards received
Wilberforce, who had requested an audience on the subject of
the abolition of the slave trade, Alexander having advocated the
previous emancipation of the slaves in those colonies restored by
the Treaty of Peace to Holland and France, and also desiring
to pass an international law declaring the slave trade to be

* " The nobility," says Ensh, " gave parties after the opera at twelve.
They lasted until two and three. Most of those who have been at them
do not rise till noon next day. About two p.m. commences the roll of
carriages. At six p.m. the morning ends." — Recollections of Residence
at the Court of London, 1818-24.

Alexander in Paris and London^ 99

piracy. But in this measure he was opposed by the English
ministers and all the Allies. In the afternoon he rode in
Hyde Park, dined with the Prince Regent^ and closed the
evening at a party at Lord Salisbury's.

The 13th was spent in viewing the Woolwich Arsenal and
other objects^ and on the 14th the Sovereigas and Princes
drove to Oxford to attend the commemoration festivities^ which
that year were particularly grand. Greek and Latin odes
vrere recited in honour of the Czar^ who was made a Doctor
of Laws, but he left the next day^ inspecting Woodstock and
Blenheim on his road. He travelled in an open carriage^ and
arrived in Piccadilly^ soaked through by a thunder-storm^ be-^
tween two and three a.m.^ when, after changing his clothes, he
immediately repaired to an evening party at Lady Jersey's,
to which he was engaged, and left it again at six. At 11.30
he went incognito to St. Paul's, to hear the annual service
for the Charity Schools, and declared it was the most inte-
resting sight he had yet seen. At three p.m. he inspected the
Mint, and in the evening dined with Lady Castlereagh, after
which he went in State to the theatre at Drury Lane^ and at
the conclusion of the performance to a ball at Lord Hertford's,
not leaving it till 5.30. " The Emperor's manner is certainly
very pleasing and easy; he waltzes well," writes the Hon.
Mrs. Robinson : " his mouth and smile remind me of the Em-
press Catherine." At eleven a.m. he went to Chelsea Hospital
and the Military Asylum, then to Greenwich, and afterwards
dined with the City merchants and bankers at the Merchant
Taylors' Hall, where the Duke of York presided. At eleven p.m.
he went to Covent Garden Theatre, where a performance was
being held in his honour.

On June 18th he accompanied the English Prin^ces and the
allied generals in a State procession to the Guildhall, where
thpy were entertained by the Lord Mayor. The next day,
being Sunday, he attended an early mass, and gave an audience
to a Quaker deputation. He expressed a wish to see one of
their meetings, and was conducted to the same house where
Peter the Great had fomierly witnessed a similar service. In
the afternoon he received deputations from the Foreigners'
Aid, the Bible, and Humane Societies j and afterwards went
to a party held by the Queen. On the 20th there was a

H 2

100 Alexander in Pans and London.

review in Hyde Park^ and the next day he gave an audience
of an hour to the Friends^ William Allen and Grellet, standing
all the time, and asking them many questions about their
doctrines and practice. '^ His conduct throughout/' writes
AUen^ ^^ though kind and « familiar, was dignified/' and he
shook diem each by the hand as they withdrew.

After a dinner at the Russian ambassador's, Alexander at-
tended an evening fite at Carlton House, where he said adieu
to the Queen and the Royal family, from whom he had received
visits in the course of the day. At night he attended an
entertainment at White's Club, where he again met the
Regent, and is described as being attired in plain clothes, not
even wearing an order or star. He danced till five a.m.^ and
returned to his hotel to receive early visits from some Russians
who were remaining in England, and at nine a.m. he drove to
the Tower of London, and thence to Portsmouth. Sir John
Sinclair had also waited upon him before he left Piccadilly,
and when introduced told the Emperor he had seen him
before. Alexander asked if he should have known him again.
Sir John answered " hardly," and then told him it was at his
grandmother's Court, where he was presented twenty-eight
years before, when Alexander was only eight years old.
"The Emperor did not seem in the least afiTected by all
the fatigue he had undergone." On the 23rd there was a
naval review at Portsmouth, and on the 25th the Imperial
party left for Dover, driving through Brighton, Chichester,
and Hastings, the crowd being enormous in every town they
passed. At Dover they embarked for Calais on their way to
Holland, and the Emperor seemed pleased by the acclamations
of the people, keeping his glass to his eye in the direction of
the shore till the vessel was out of sight.

Yet, notwithstanding the cordiality of his reception, there
was no period less, calculated to impress a foreign prince with
the advantage of the English form of government. The
Regent,* untrammelled by the responsibility of the supreme
authority, had given himself up to excesses which had brought

• " The troubles of the worthy Regent thicken," writes Lord
Brougham, May, 1814. " He has nad an intimation that Alexander
means to caU on the Princess of Wales when he comes, and this makes
Lim furioufl. They say Sir T. Tyrwhitt is gone to prevent it." '

Alexander in Paris and London. 101

upon him the contempt of his subjects^ and at that moment
it was particularly displayed. His wife was regarded as a
victim, and her foibles supposed to be exaggerated to induce
the Houses of Parliament to grant him a divorce. He
steadily refused to meet her in public, and she was forbidden
to appear at the Queen^s Drawing-room to receive the King of
Prussia, who was nearly related to her, or any of the other
foreign princes then in England, on the ground that etiquette
obliged the Regent to be present, and that if she came he
must stay away. The mob took up her cause, and the old
Queen, who was nearly seventy, and the mother of a nume-
rous family, was hooted and even spit at when she drove
along the streets. The Prince had the same reception, except
when he appeared in company with the allied Sovereigns, and
even then his carriage windows were once plastered with mud ;
but although it vexed him to see their popularity, he was
certainly better received after their visit. A free press indulged
in lampoons and caricatures of its reigning Prince, and the
Grand Duchess Catherine was not spaxed when it was thought
she interfered between the Princess Charlotte and the Dutch
Prince. There was not much in common between the elderly
beau and his guests, and he was glad when they were gone.
The rough, ungainly Blucher, whose conversation made even
the German officers blush, seems to have been more congenial
to him, as he liked sitting long after dinner; an English
practice Alexander abhorred, and which was then carried to
excess. A State dinner in St. Petersburg seldom occupied
more than an hour, and the Emperor was accustomed to. drink
but one glass of wine. He grew impatient under the infliction
of sitting three or four hours at the dinner-table at Carlton
House, at a time that he was anxious to utilize each moment
of his English visit, and when on ordinary occasions all his
time was employed. The Regent more than once became
very confidential, and complained of his wife, abused his
daughter, and requested the Emperor to use his influence in
persuading her to accept the Prince of Orange. With regard
to his disputes with his wife, the Regent did not find the sup-
port he had expected. Alexander tried to convince him he
would act wisely in showing her more outward courtesy.
'• No one/' the Czar is said to have asserted, " could love his

102 Alexander in Paris and London.

wife less than he loved the Empress^ but he did not consider
that would justify him in slighting her publicly^ or withdrawing
the protection a woman should always receive from her
husband. The Prince should remember their wives were as
much to be pitied as themselves : they perhaps might have
married more suitably if left to their own choice ; and Caroline
and Elizabeth might have found more affectionate husbands.
To which the Prince replied, they could have found no other
husbands who could have created the one Empress of Russia
and the other Princess of Wales. The Prince used to relate
that, when he was driving out with the Emperor, a man put
hid head into the carriage, and shouted out^ ^^ Whereas your
wife V Upon which he turned it off by telling Alexander,
^' That was intended for your Imperial Majesty.''

The Russian suite thought their Sovereign was insulted by
" Rule Britannia " being played on all occasions in his pre-
sence, but never the Russian national hymn. A few annoying
incidents occurred, such as the Regent being more than half
intoxicated when he entered the same carriage with the
Emperor; and Alexander's conferences with the British
ministers on the subject of the Duchy of Warsaw, and other
points to be discussed at Vienna, had not ended satisfactorily,
as both sides adhered to their own views. He admired the
system of an organized opposition to the Government^ which
he saw was an open and wholesome check upon the possible
abuse of power. He was surprised to see the comforts of
life so generally spread through all classes of society, and
thought the position of an English squire the most desirable
in the world. The richness of the country, tuad the number
of cannon and other military appliances in its arsenals after
BO long a war, gave him a high idea of her power and
resources. Yet his after reflections on his visit seem to have
been not altogether pleasant."^ In 1818 his aide-de-camp,

* Nothing of dissatisfaction at the time was observed by his English
entertainers. "There is a striking contrast," writes the poet Moore,
"between the natural manners and simple dress of the Emperor of
Russia and King of Prussia and the artificial dignity and manufac-
tured appearance of the Regent." " We are all Emperor mad," writes
a young lady who had stationed herself with her friends among the crowd
on the staircase at Pulteney's Hotel to see him. " His head is bald, his
hair light, his complexion blonde and beautiful, his eyes blue, his mouth
very smaU, his lips thin, his cheat and shoulders broad and finely formed,

Alexander in Paris and London. 108

Czernicfaef, inqmred from an English officer '^ if he knew how
the Emperor stood in the personal estimation of the Prince
Regent. There were untoward circumstances during the
Emperor's visit in London which he feared might have led to
some coolness ; the endeavour of the Grand Duchess to disturb
the prospect of an alliance with the Prince of Orange, and
her insisting to go everywhere with her brother, which he
homoured her in^ might lead to this, together with the
Emperor's not going to the apartments prepared for him, and
disliking late hours of dinner ; the Prince had never visited
the Emperor in his hotel, which had hurt him at the time, but
the Emperor regretted these circumstances, and feared he had
left an un&vourable impression on the mind of his Royal
Highness/'

Twelve Cossacks of the Guard accompanied Alexander to
England, and collected a curious group around them as they
stood outside Sir Thomas Lawrence's house in London when
their Hetman was sitting for his portrait. The Prince Regent
was anxious to obtain the pictures of all the chiefs connected
with the late war; but the Czar was too much occupied to
apare the time, and for the same reascm never sat to a painter
from the day he ascended the throne. Gerard and Isabey
took several portraits of him in Paris, the result merely of
close observation when he appeared in public, and the painting
of Alexander by Gerard in the Commemoration Hall at Oxford,
that by Bazin, a Russian artist, and the portrait, also by
Gerald, given by the Emperor to La Harpe, and now in the
Museum at Lausanne, are three of the most correct likenesses
existing of him. In the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence in
the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, painted in 1818,
the figure is like, but the face too broad ; and there are three
portraits, taken at very different periods, in the gallery at
Versailles, said to be good. A medal was struck by Wyon at
the Mint, which his sister thought very like him, and it bears

his manner graceful and dignified. I was squeezed so close to him that
I took hold of his hand : it was so soft. Two young women in the
crowd pressed forward, one on her knee» and kissed his hand, which he
drew back as if shocked or ashamed. His sister is very like him, but
her noee plainer than his." Lady C. Davies described him as " a remark-
ably hanosome man both in face and fignre." Miss Berry as ** a tail, fine^
manly iignre, with a clear complexion and good open countenance." Ladj
Maimesbnry as " making a perfect contrast with the BegenU"

104 Alexander in Paris and London,

a strong resemblance to the Empress Catherine. He refused to
give the world-renowned Canova an opportunity of taking his
bust^ but Thorwaldsen obtained one sitting from him when he
visited Warsaw in 1820. Thorwaldsen was fond of describing
the Emperor^ and said he ^^ had talked to him just like any-
body else/'

Alexander arrived at the Hague^ July 2ndj and after re-
maining there a day left with the Royal family for Haarlem
and Amsterdam, whence he paid a visit to Zaandam to see the
house where Peter the Great had lived. Sixteen daughters of
the magistrates, dressed in the picturesque national costume,
received him. The house is a small wooden cottage in the
old Dutch style, containing two rooms and a very little closet,
where Peter slept. One of the rooms was used as a chapel,
and the other as a kitchen and salon, for he lived here like a
hermit ; and Menzikof and other members of his suite occupied
a comfortable abode in the neighbourhood. The King led the
Emperor into the hut, and requesting him to leave a memorial of
his visit, offered him a square tablet of white marble and a silver
trowel to place it in a space in the chimney-piece already pre-
pared. The tablet was engraved with the words, in gold
letters, " Petro Magno — Alexandre."* The same evening
Alexander left Amsterdam for Bruchsal, to meet the Empress,
whom he had not seen for more than eighteen months.
Madame Svetchine received an account of their interview in
a letter from Mdlle. Stourdza, sent by the Emperor's own hand
to St. Petersburg. She wrote that her correspondent's details
touched her deeply. ^' How many sweet tears it has made me
shed I For more than a month my mind was concentrated on
that point, and I waited, foreseeing in my hopes and wishes
the moment which might realize them. I mingled fears also,
but how much I now enjoy the perfect confidence this portion
of your letter gave me I In that reunion, so much desired, I
see the only triumph left for virtue to obtain, the evil conquered
in its last entrenchment and under its last form, and the
opening of a new day of pardon and blessings for Russia.
You are right to exclude me from the number of those who
waited for a marvellous circle of unexampled prosperities to

* The house has been cased, to preserve it from the weather, by Alex-
ander's sister, the Jate Queen of Holland.

Alexander in Paris and London: 105

render justice to the Emperor. I have felt no surprise at
current events, and his finest actions have not aroused it/^*

Alexander's return was awaited with impatience at St.
Petersburg, where, De Maistre writes, " abuses are enormous,
because the nation is enormous/^ Religious controversies
and political disputes occupied the best classes of society, but
the Emperor's old tutor. Marshal Soltikof, the virtual Regent
of the Empire, had suffered from more than one attack of
paralysis, and changes were expected in the ministry. " I am
Yery curious to see what ideas will arrive in this crowd of
young heads who return to Russia. The interior will give
immense occupation to his Imperial Majesty, for during so
long an absence business has much accumulated. In Moscow the
merchants only are rebuilding." St. Petersburg was elated
at the national triumph. No Muscovite town had delivered
up her keys to a French conqueror, but Alexander had
received the submission of the city of Paris, and the fate of
her inhabitants, and of Napoleon himself, had depended on his
wiU. The European supremacy Napoleon strove to obtain
throughout his career, and failed to acquire in the Russian
campaign, had fallen into the hands of the Czar, and the moral
supremacy Alexander exercised over Prance herself had been
greater than any Napoleon gained over any other prostrate
people. The Czar returned the acknowledged leader of the
continental Powers, the object of dread to his allies. Had
not Napoleon been greeted, after a far less victory, with all
the pomp that the civil and military authorities of Paris
could display ? Had he not delighted to exhibit trophies of
his success, and to represent in painting and sculpture, like
the barbarous monarchs of old times, a humiliated prince

• Sir Robert Wilson, writing from Bruchsal, the residence of Alex-
ander's mother-in-law, July lOth, says : " This morning I saw the Em-
peror ; the reception amply repaid me for the visit. He took me by the
Aand, led me to the Empress, and told her to regard me as his faithful
companion in arms. I dined with the Emperor, the Empress, the Grand
Duke and Duchess of Baden, the Queen of Sweden, the Prince and
Princess of Darmstadt, the young Prince of Sweden, (&c. &c. I had much
interesting conversation with the Emperor on jzeneral politics and Eng-
land. Some of his observations were worthy of record in the golden book
of philanthropical and philosophical legislators. . . . Our dinners, both
as to length and quantity of wine drunk, our healths and our toasts, were
not characteristics of English hospitality, which the Emperor and those
who accompanied him to England cite with the greatest satisfaction."

106 Alexander in Tarts and London.

offering homage at the feet of the conqueror ? The arch be-
tween the Louvre and the Tuileries was still adorned with
bas-reliefs^ showing the father of the French Empress standing
bareheaded before Napoleon (who kept his hat on)^ submis-
sively asking for peace ; and had not Napoleon in his turn
begged for peace from Alexander^ and offered every concessioiL
he could name if he were only permitted to keep his throne ?
There was not a town in Europe that could have remained
uuexcited on receiving back its prince with such laurels.
London was illuminated for three nights when she received
him, and how could St. Petersburg do less ? The Senate de-
liberated for three days on the mode in which they could
reward him, and they agreed to give him the title of Beni du
Ciel (the Blessed of Heaven), and to send a deputation to
Weimar to meet him on the road, with a golden cup engraved
with the names of his battles. But Alexander showed as much
moderation in his triumph as in his treatment of the con-
quered, and was, moreover, weary of honours and display.
The admiration of a fickle multitude was not the novelty to
Catherine's heir that it had been to Napoleon. He had no
need and no desire to seek popular demonstration. "The
Emperor,^' writes De Maistre, " who is simplicity itself, is very
much averse to all honours rendered directly to his person.
He does not like being put, as they say, in face of himself.^'
The four million Frenchmen whom Napoleon sacrificed to
his ambition seem to have borne no part in his subsequent
regrets, but Alexander was a Russian by birth, and the loss of
the thousands of his fellow-countrymen in the war weighed
heavily on his soul. His religious feelings also deterred him
irom accepting the glory of the campaign, and allowing scope
for the adulation people are always apt to heap on a successful
general, especially if that general be their king ; but De
Maistre thought it was a mistake to check such an effusion of
loyalty.

The deputation consisted of Prince Kurakin, Count Alex-
ander Soltikof, and General Tormassof. When they were
presented they asked Alexander to accept the title, and to
allow a monument to be erected to him in the Isaac Square.
He replied, '^ I have always tried to give the nation an
example of simplicity and modesty. I cannot accept the

Alexander in Paris and London, 107

title offered to me without deviating from my principles^ and
as for the monument, it is for posterity to erect one to me if
they think me worthy of it/' He also begged they would
reserve their money for the widows^ orphans^ and wounded in
the war, instead of expending it in illuminations. He wrote
to the Governor of St. Petersburg, "I am informed that
Tarious preparations are making for my reception. I have
alwayB disliked these things, and disapprove of them still more
at the present moment. The events which have put an end
to the sanguinary wars in Europe are the work of the Al-
mighty alone. To Him we must give the praise. Make
known this unalterable resolution, that no preparations what*
ever may be made to welcome me.'' He even declined the
request of the Senate to bestow upon himself the first class
of the military Order of St. George.

He arrived in the neighbourhood of his capital several days
before he was expected, as he did not stop in Berlin ; and
went straight to Paulovsky to see his mother^ who had thrown
off her mourning for Paul on hearing of the capture of Paris.
" What a return, and what a triumph !" writes De Maistre.*
'' I enjoy his happiness as if it belonged to myself. After a
long and glorious absence, he arrived last Monday at St. Peters- ^
burg at seven a.m. He surprised everybody, coming without
noise and without escort, descended at the Cathedral of Kazan
to say his prayers, and went back to his palace as if he had
only returned from Czarco-Selo or Peterhof." The next day
there was a public thanksgiving at the same church, attended
by the Empress-mother and her daughter, Constantine, the
diplomatic body, and a vast congregation. The Emperor rode to
the cathedral on horseback through a joyful crowd, with all the
bells in the city ringing and salutes of artillery. '' He is not
much altered by his campaigns, except being rather sunburnt,
but this military colour suits him very well. . . • As to those
sort of honours which do not require his presence, I believe
he would allow them willingly, but he does not like anything
forced ; and who can be astonished ? In an autograph letter,
very elegantly written, so say good judges, the Emperor
renders the Governor of St. Petersburg personally responsible
for everything done in this way ; a light sarcasm, for in the

* Correspondance Diplomatiqae. . . ^

108 Alexander in Paris and London.

manner in which the sums would have been lened for all
these projects there would not have been the voluntary action
which is their charm, his pride would be offended by it, and this
induced him to refuse everything/' But as the Senate and
other corporations continued to press his acceptance of a title
and a public monument, he answered that these loyal wishes
gave him great pleasure, and that his whole efforts were
directed to implore by fervent prayer the blessing of Grod on
himself and his faithful people, and to be blessed by them and
by the whole human race. ^^ This is my most ardent wish and
my greatest happiness. But with all my endeavours to attain
it, I cannot as a m^n allow myself to be so presumptuous as
to accept this name, and to imagine I have already obtained
this happiness. I consider it as the more incompatible, with
my principles, because I have at all times and on all oc-
casions exhorted my faithful subjects to modesty and humility^
and I will not give an example which would contradict these
sentiments. While expressing my gratitude, I beg the public
bodies of the empire to abandon all such designs,'^ &c.

One of Alexander's first acts was to appoint a committee^
composed of several generals, to confer pensions on the invalid
and wounded oflScers, and provide for the widows and orphans.
On the 30th August, the anniversary of Kulm, he published an
address of thanks to his army " for their great services and
cheerful endurance ; their heroic deeds had incessantly at-
tracted his attention throughout the campaign ; and he invited
all who had returned crippled or wounded to come to him, to
receive the rewards they deserved."

This promise was carried out, and a free pardon granted to
" all persons misled to hold intercourse with the enemy.'' All
debts to the Government not exceeding 2000 roubles were ex-
cused, and a general mitigation of sentences passed upon
criminals. In the provinces which had suffered from the war
the peasants were exempted from the poll-tax, as well as all
arrears throughout the empire since 1812. Notice was given
in the German newspapers that, as the inhabitants of Germany
who had received Russian bank-notes during the war might
find it difficult to dispose of them at their true value, offices
were established in Berlin and Konigsberg, where all persons

Alexander in Paris and London. 109

who applied with such bank-notes should receive their value
according to the actual rate of exchange.

Among the nohility who arrived from all parts of the empire
to meet Alexander^ Rostopchine came from Moscow to give up
his accounts^ and to resign his post. He wrote to his wife a
few days after the Emperor's return — " When I saw the Em-
peror^ and when I dined with him^ he only spoke to me of in-
different things. I shall wait another week, and then ask for
an audience to demand his orders on the subject of extraordi-
nary sums I have had at my disposal, and to request my com-
plete dismissal.'^ It has been shown that his interviews with
the Emperor had been rare, and that for years he refused to
accept ofSce. There is no reason to suppose he wished for
anything further now, except a public approval of his conduct
daring the invasion. But on this subject Alexander was
always silent, though he refrained from dismissing him at the
demand of the commissioners who joined the citizens of
Moscow in their complaints, nor had he shown his displeasure
in any other way. Yet Rostopchine felt he was coldly re-
ceived. He attended a lev^e held for the wounded officers,
where Alexander spoke feelingly and gratefully to each of his
services and hardships,^ but he accepted Rostopchine's resigna-
tion, though he summoned him to the Congress of Vienna, and
made him a member of the Council of State. The ex-governor
refused to take any compensation for his losses in Moscow,
and during the rest of his life occupied himself with religious
meditations, like many Russian politicians who had gone
through a lifetime of labour and cares in the last twenty years,
and now relinquished diplomacy to instruct themselves in
German mysticism, or to find the gold still left in their own
Church, loaded as it was with rust through many centuries of
subjection to Mahometans. The moment was seized by the
Jesuits to make conversions in the empire. They were repre-

• Among many purely invented stories of Alexander, it has been said
on thin occasion he tamed so red and addressed the Count so rudely that
Bostopchine thought it best to retire at once. The Emperor may have
coloured when he saw him, as recalling a great catastrophe to his memory,
but that he said anything but a few courteous words, such as are usual
at a lev6e, has been stoutly denied by one who was present and standing
dose by them. General Tormassof was appointed Governor of Moscow
in his place.

110 Alexander in Paris and London.

sented by learned and worldly men^ too powerfnl in subtle
argument for the simple Russian priesthood to meet them at
all on equal terms in the arena of polemical strife. Hitherto
they were an exiled band^ seeking refuge under the protecting
wings of Russia ; but Pius Yll. took the earliest opportunity
to display his recoTered independence in an edict, published
7th August, 1814, which re-established the Order of Jesuits in
^' the Empire of Russia, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
the Ecclesiastical States, and all other States/' He gave as a
reason that " some thirteen years before he had been called
upon by the Emperor Paul and King Ferdinand of Naples to
allow of the establishment of the Jesuits in their dominions,
and he now diffused that which their enlightened minds es-
teemed so great a blessing over the rest of Europe." Those
who recollect the excitement caused in England in 1848 hj
the Papal aggression, as it was termed — the establishment of
Roman Catholic bishops — will understand the alarm raised by
the restoration of the Jesuits among the votaries of the Greek
Church ; particularly as the favours Alexander and Paul
granted them had given general displeasure. Apart from the
enmity existing for centuries between the two great divisions
of the holy Catholic Church, the Jesuits were accused of being
political intriguers and foreign spies. " The Sovereign of this
country,'* writes De Maistre in September, 1814, " has great
religious ideas, so much the more estimable that he only owes
them to himself, for his education pushed him in a completely
contrary direction ; but I have no motive for thinking he has
taken up the questions dividing our two Churches, only he is
tolerant, and that is much. The Greek rancour tried to move
more than one machine about him to injure us, but has not
succeeded. The existence of the Jesuits in Russia is one of
the most luminous proofs of his astonishing power over him-
self ; for they inspired him with violent prejudices against
them, and he was daily surrounded by those who hate them.
However, they endure. The Chancellor has retired (October
8th). It is said he wished to attend the Congress at Vienna,
but in a tete-^tete of nearly two hours the Emperor was in-
flexible, knowing the foreign Cabinets cannot bear him. He
is not an easy man to replace. He displeased everybody by
not asking favours for his subordinates when he retired — the

Alexander in Paris and London. Ill

usual form. He said the Emperor knew as well as he which
of his servants deserved favour/' De Maistre speaks of Nes-
selrode^ who succeeded him^ as not having sufficient weight
with the Emperor to influence him. '^ I doubt, however, if
the Emperor can be influenced ; I believe he will remain
perfectly independent.'' Lord Walpole refers to the same
subject, August 9th : '' Nesselrode has received the portfolio
of Foreign Afiairs. He enjoys no consideration whatever, but
is merely considered as the Emperor's secretary, . . . The in-
timacy between the Emperor and the celebrated Madame
Narishkine is about to be broken oflf, and she will leave this
country for some years. I believe her true reason is the fear
of what she foresees likely to happen from the great oddness
of the Emperor. This was suspected in very early age, and
medical men now here were brought over on that account. . . .
She excused her resolution to the Emperor by remarking the
strong feeling of affection manifested by the public for the
young Empress upon her leaving St. Petersburg, her dread of
being at some time the victim of that sentiment, and that
going away she would at least show she was not the obstacle
to a reconciliation which she advised between them. Should
any change ever take place, the Empress would be the popular
choice."*

Her departure coincided with Alexander's desire to lead a
more religious life, though she carried with her the only child
remaining to him, who was brought up with the three daugh-
ters of the Grand Huntsman in ignorance of her birth. Even
the Imperial munificence had not sufficed to keep Narishkine
and his wife out of debt, and the husband was at this time a
ruined man. Alexander settled on her a pension of (one ac-
count says) 8000/. to suffice for the education and maintenance
of his daughter, who was five years old ; but the lady continued
to be constantly embarrassed. Alexander eventudly paid all
her debts.

As to Bomanzov, his failing health often incapacitated him
from business in 1812, when Nesselrode filled up the vacancy;
and not being favourable to the Emperor's views as to Poland,
he threatened to resign unless he accompanied him to Vienna,
in the hope perhaps of modifying them. Finding Alexander

* Gastlereagh Correspondence.

112 Alexander in Paris and London,

ivas determined not to take him^ he retired at once. He re-
ceived a kind letter from the Emperor^ expressing a hope that
his love for his country would not allow him, when his health
was restored, to withhold from it the benefit of his talents and
experience. The bond between them was his literary and
scientific tastes, his integrity, and his desire to promote educa-
tion among the lower classes. Yet no minister was ever more
abused by foreign statesmen. He was personally acquainted
with the distinguished traveller Humboldt ; and at the end of
1811, when he still hoped to avert a war, he invited him to
take part in a Government expedition for exploring the re-
sources and establishing diplomatic relations in Kashgar and
Thibet. Humboldt seemed pleased with the idea, provided
his services would not be required before 1814, when he would
have completed a work he had on hand. '' I should think it,^'
he writes to one of his friends, ^^ no humiliation to offer my
services to a Prince under whose government the artB and
sciences have flourished throughout the length and breadth of
his vast dominions, did not my position entirely prohibit such
a step.'' He wished to undertake the journey at his own ex-
pense ; but although the war and the heavy cost it involved
delayed the expedition, and when it was carried out there was
such a strong feeling in Russia against foreigners that he was
not employed, still he ended by overcoming his scruples, and
in 1827 made a journey to the Altai Mountains at the expense
of Nicholas.

Romanzov gave up all the presents he received from
foreign princes to the fund for the benefit of the wounded, and
refused to accept the pension Alexander assigned him. His
private fortune enabled him to support schemes for the public
benefit with princely liberality. In 1814 he despatched Cap-
tain Kotzebue on a voyage rouTid the world, and defrayed the
cost of the publication of a Russian ^^ Codex Diplomaticus,''
printed at Moscow in 1813, of a History of Leo the Deacon,
and of a Russian translation of the History of the Monguls
and Tartars, by Abdul Ghazi, Prince of Carizme. In 1817-18
he made several journeys to collect historical manuscripts,
which he published ; and formed a museum of Oriental medals
and coins, at the time considered fai* the richest in Europe.
In 1817 Canova executed by his order a colossal figure of

Alexander in Paris and London. 113

Peace, to commemorate three treaties concluded by his father,
his grandfather, and himself, 1743, 1774, and 1809. He also
{^ve 25,000 roubles to the Imperial Academy of Sciences
towards the printing and publication of ancient Russian
records. He survived Alexander exactly a month.

Admiral Tchichagof * was made a member of the Council of
State, having resigned his public duties and lived in retirement
since 1813 : he now went to reside in England, still incon-
solable for the loss of his wife, and for the blame attached to
liim in the salons at St. Petersburg and among foreign diplo-
matists at having failed to intercept Napoleon in the marshes
of the Beresina. Alexander took an early opportunity to visit
the widow and daughters of Marshal Kutuzov, and ordered a
pillar to be erected on the site of Moreau's fall at Dresden,
inscribed with the words, " The Emperor Alexander to his
friend Moreau.*' He established several committees to draw
up plans for the retrenchment of expenses in the various
Government departments. The merchants at St. Petersburg
gave a dinner to Constantine and 200 officers of the Russian
Guard, and the Grand Duke in his turn entertained and re-
warded the subaltern officers and privates. Sut the Emperoi*^s
departure to the Congress of Vienna was a drawback to the
national joy. He publicly explained that his absence for a
short time longer was necessary to secure the fruits of years of
contest in a lasting peace. He knew well the opposition or-
ganized against Russia, and would probably never have raised
Germany, or given the chief command of the armies to an
Austrian, if he had then formed an idea of the European
jealousy towards him, or the fear excited by the Russian con-
quests in the last century. But having fallen into that error
once, and seen how that jealousy prolonged the war, he was
the more resolved to extend his ow^n frontiers till Moscow was
protected against any future invader. The reasons Napoleon
gave for not de^jiring to restore the independence of Poland,
even if he had possessed the power to do so, applied much
more strongly to Russia ; and it was obvious that if the Duchy
of Warsaw was left in the position it held before 1812, it
would serve, as it did then, for a perpetual site of conspiracy
i^ainst her moral and material influence. Alexander was

* He lived at Brighton, where he published his defence. He died 1852.
VOL. UI. I

r^

114 Alexander in Paris and London.

taught by the invasion in what points lay the strength and
weakness of Russia^ and that knowledge was the ground of his
diplomacy throughout the Vienna Congress.

Besides the political side of the question, there was his
old promise to Czartoriski, when he was but seventeen, that
sooner or later he would unite the severed limbs of the Polish
territory, and that Poland should again form one nation. It
was in his power to fulfil this promise, and his honour was dear
to him. If conquest ever gives a right, that right had been
conquered by his armies now occupying Poland. He was not
called upon to refer the matter to his allies, but he wished
the constitution he intended to give her to be additionally
guaranteed by a treaty with all Europe. No one knew better
that he might prove but a " fortunate accident " in the line of
autocrats of Russia, but this wish to make the reconstitution
of Poland a European matter, and not merely the gift of
Russia, was very unpopular among his countrymen. More-
over, they thought the Poles deserved chastisement, and not
rewards and privileges, for the active part they took in laying
waste the empire.

So Alexander and the Poles were opposed by all Europe,
including Russia. The King of Prussia was his friend, but
Frederick William^s personal opinion had little weight in the
councils of his ministers. Jackson, writing from Berlin to
Lord Castlereagh, 19th August, 1814, speaks of " the King's
dislike to business, which devolved everything upon his Chan-
cellor (then Prince Hardenberg), and prevented his other
ministers having access to him.'' He mentions, indeed, '^ the
unbounded confidence of the King in the Emperor of Russia,
which it is rumoured is likely to be still more closely cemented
by the marriage of the Princess Royal ;" but the Chancellor
was Alexander's enemy, and influenced by the English ministers.
Prussia had always found Warsaw a troublesome province, and
did not wish to possess it again ; but she would have preferred
a neutral State to intervene between her frontiers and Russia.
She would coincide with Alexander's views if she could obtain
a part of Saxony, but in no other way. Austria throughout
fearing Russia more than France, was alarmed by the projected
marriage of the Due de Berri, and Metternich endeavoured
to prevent it. The marriage between the Grand Duchess

Alexander in Paris and London. 115

Catherine and the Archduke Charles^ proposed years before
and now renewed, fell through because it was contrary to the
rules of the Greek Church for two sisters to marry two
brothers, and her deceased sister Alexandra had been the wife
of the Archduke Joseph. As to France, mere vindictiveness
induced Louis to forget his own interests and oppose Alexan-
der's plans. Talleyrand and Napoleon between them were
fated to bring upon the unfortunate country a second invasion,
and the dire retribution for all the blood shed since the death
of Louis XVI. — a retribution suspended after the first invasion,
owing to Alexander's generosity — but falling with accumulated
weight when the Allies marched once more on Paris. No
one but Louis and his advisers were ignorant of their perilous
footing, and yet they wished to sever the ropes which kept
them floating on the waters, disregarded Alexander's counsel,
and encouraged disputes with all their continental allies. Tal-
leyrand went to Vienna with orders from his master to foment
quarrels and prolong the Congress in every possible way. An
army was marched to the south of France to enforce a demand
for Murat's deposition, while the French minister boasted that
of all the Powers Prance was the most capable of carrying on
another general war. Napoleon's emissaries kept him well
informed of these transactions, and he imagined that Louis
was isolated, and would not again receive support from the
Allies. Louis even refiised to keep a verbal promise to
Prussia, that if the Allies would not openly strip the galleries
and museums in Paris of their ill-gotten spoil, he would re-
store the works of art stolen from Potsdam and Berlin.
Napoleon opened a secret negotiation with the chiefs in com-
mand of that French army which was approaching his island
territory, and where every officer and private detested the
dynasty that preferred noble birth to military exploits. Once
in reach of that army, what should prevent him from placing
himself at its head and overturning Louis, who, in trying to
identify himself with his kingdom, had treated those who had
restored him to it as enemies ? So, in the belief that another
coalition was impossible. Napoleon broke his word and re-
turned from Elba, and the result was the utter humiliation
and prostration of France.

And England^ after opposing Talleyrand's policy through

i2

• .

116 Alexander in Paris and London.

years of war^ now combined witli him against Russia^ and was
drawn by his schemes to forsake her usual open diplomacy,
and to sign a secret treaty to support each other with arms if
necessary in counteracting her views, which after all were carried
out. Was it likely that a minister, whose course was marked
with broken pledges, should become the sincere colleague
of any ally, and not turn directly it seemed to his advantage
against his new friend ? Castlereagh soon found him§elf called
upon "seriously to remonstrate with Talleyrand,'' because,
instead of following his master's instructions to unite his
eflForts with the Allies to curb Russia as regarded Poland, he
attacked every arrangement. He said it was not for the
Bourbons, restored by the Allies, to assume the tone of repro-
bation or throw odium upon the arrangements which had kept
the Allies together, &c. ; and even the courteous Alexander
declared that Talleyrand tried to play the part of a minister
of Louis XIV.

Wellington wrote from the embassy in Paris to Castlereagh
(August 18th, 1814), that " the situation of aflfairs.will naturally
constitute England and France as arbitrators at the Congress
if those Powers understand each other, and such an understand-
ing may preserve the general peace."

Sir Charles Stewart informed Lord Castlereagh* (Paris,
August 1st, 1814) that Talleyrand " said he had witnessed with
satisfaction the feeling not only Austria, but even the Russian
nobility, expressed respecting the plans the Emperor of
Russia is supposed to meditate in Poland. He observed that
so long as the Polish question was confined to a definition of
frontier, it could not produce any material efflect upon the
affairs of Europe ; but that the instant the principle of inde-
pendence should be set afloat, and the possible establishment of a
Polish kingdom, with its corresponding forms and institutions,
should be contemplated, though its. limits should not reach
the present frontier of the Russian Empire, a germ of discord
both in Russia and in the res' of Europe would be formed, by
which the interests of all parties would eventually be more or
less equally affected. He said the probable substitution of
Polish authorities for the Russian governors, &c., in all the
provinces successively dismembered from that monarchy, had

• Castlereagh Correspondence.

Alexander in Pam and London. 117

already created a feeling whieli rendered the Emperor's return
to his own dominions very necessary ; and if the influence
derived from the late auspicious events should enable him to
overcome this feeling, it would only lead to a more diflBcult
struggle at Vienna with the ministers of all the principal
Powers in Europe. He considered Prance and England alike
interested in keeping Kussia from maintaining a weight in the
affairs of North Germany/' Again, on August 8th, Sir Charles
Stewart writes : " This Government expects with very great
anxiety the account of the Emperor of Russia's arrival at
St. Petersburg. The Prince de Benevento (Talleyrand) told
me yesterday that he considered the old divisions (of Poland)
to form 80 essential a part of the politics of Europe, that he
was anxious to ascertain if my Court coincided in the same
opinion. He said the immediate interests of France would
point out that the King of Saxony should be King of
Poland, but the discord which must inevitably follow the esta-
blishment of a Polish kingdom, however inconsiderable, was
80 dangerous to other States that he had no hesitation in
abiding by the old arrangement, which he considered to be
infinitely better calculated for the preservation of general
tranquillity. He thought the question had been lightly con-
sidered by the Emperor of Russia, whose mode of viewing
Polish affairs was the greatest proof of youth manifested by that
Sovereign during his stay in France. He conjured the British
Government to make Polish affairs a mere question of limits
at Vienna, in which endeavour they would be assured of the
support of all the great Powers, and but a feeble opposition
on the part of the Russian ministers themselves, who do not
consider the re-establishment of a Polish kingdom to be by
any means a Russian object."*

Louis from the very first preferred the alliance of England
to that of Russia, though willing to protract the matrimonial
negotiation, to use it as a bribe to induce Alexander to allow
of Napoleon's removal from Elba and Murat's deposition.
Castlereagh asks Wellington (August 7th, 1814) to " ascertain
in what state the treaty of marriage between the Due de Berri
and the Grand Duchess Anna now stands.^' " It was considered
certain in St. Petersburg," the Duke answers, " that the Due

* Wellington Correspondence.

118 Alexander in Paris and Zondon.

de Bern told him it would take place on his return to Paris/'
But at this very time Talleyrand, having found that Alexander
would not swerve from his line of policy for the sake of a
marriage his mother had much at hearty was directed by
Louis to give his final decision to the Czar, that he could not
permit it, lest it should introduce insanity into the royal
blood of France.* The difficulty about religion had been
surmounted, as neither the Pope nor the clergy of France
dared object to a Greek chapel in the Tuileries. One of the
brothers of the Prince Regent is said to have offered his hand
to this young princess, though, as he was more than twice her
age, the offer was decliued. Ferdinand VII. of Spain was a
widower, and a party among the Spaniards, who wished to keep
him out of the bands of the priests, proposed his marriage
with a Russian bride. The English ambassador doubted if
this arrangement would suit England, but the Duke of San
Carlos was commissioned to negotiate it. Alexander had a
low opinion of Ferdinand, though he hoped he had been im-
proved by calamity. He consented that, in the event of the
marriage, his sister should go with the King of Spain to mass,
and to all outward appearances conform to the Roman Catholic
ceremonies ; but he stipulated that she should be allowed a
Greek chapel, and on this point the project was broken offl

Alexander left his capital, September 13th, for Moscow,
which still presented a melancholy heap of ruins. He stayed
there a few days and assembled the principal inhabitants,
thanking them for their patriotism, and giving orders to hasten
the necessary measures for its restoration. From Moscow he
went to Vilna and to Pulawy, the seat of the Czartoriskis,
where he had stayed in 1805, passing through the part of his
empire most wasted by the war. The elder Prince Adam,
having been Marshal of the Polish Diet in 1812, thought it
wise not to obtrude himself upon the Emperor, who was
received by his daughter, the Duchess of Wiirtemberg, the
Princess Radzivil, General Krasinski, Count Novossilzof,
and many others. A deputation of Poles came from Warsaw
to offer their homage and to express their gratitude. "I
hope,'' he answered, " that success will justify the confidence

* Talleyrand told Iiord HcllaQd that this was the King's real reason,
as he believed both Peter III. and Paul to have been insane.

Alexander in Paris and London. 119

of your nation; the prosperity of the Poles will be my
reward. Assure the inhabitants of Warsaw of my friendship,
and if I delay my arrival in their town, it is only to consolidate
their happiness/' At Vilna, where he stayed for one night,
he received the principal inhabitants who had returned since
he last visited it, during the disastrous period of the French
retreat. The nobility had then fled, afraid to meet the Prince
to whom they had broken their oath; but now they were
anxious to ascertain their position with regard to him. On
seeing Count Tisenhansen (the father of Madame Choiseul-
Goutfier), he said, "Ah ! it is you, Count; the past is forgotten
— all is forgotten.*' " But the accent, the grave air, evidently
meant that he was pardoned/^ writes the Count's daughter;
" the Emperor could pardon, but he could not forget." The
Count felt it so much that he did not again put himself in the
way of the Emperor.

Before leaving Russia Alexander* appointed commissioners
to ascertain the losses of the nobility and citizens in those
towns and provinces overrun by the French, to provide them
with indemnities, and to repay every one of his subjects who
eame forward with contributions during the war. He set out
from Pulawy September 25th, and meeting the King of
Prussia they entered Vienna together, and were received by
Francis at the entrance to the city, where he embraced his
allies in the sight of thousands of people. The Sovereigns
of Austria and Prussia had returned to their capitals with
far more pomp than Alexander permitted in Russia. Berlin
and Vienna were brilliantly illuminated, and some of the in-
scriptions on the public buildings in the last city bordered closely
on the profane. Over the principal gateway they read these
words : " Five completed the great work. Two in the first
line^ Alexander and Francis. Two in the second, George and
Frederick William. And if you wish to know the fifth, look to
the left," and on the fifth, in large letters, was written " God."
Frederick William made his triumphal entrance into Berlin
August 7th, and gave a banquet to the Russian troops as
they paused in his capital on their way to their northern
homes. After twenty-five years of battles, the sound of arms
had ceased from one end of Europe to another. Even Russia
* Lord Walpole writes : " He is all kindness and flattery."

120 Alexander in Paris and London.

was at peace on all her frontiers^ for the Persian war had
ended in the annexation of two important provinces.

The possibility of another war induced the British
ministers to hold out an olive branch to America^ though
they refused Alexander's mediation m 1813^ on the ground
that '' Great Britain could never consent to trust a question
involving her maritime rights to any Power, however unex-
ceptionable — independently of that consideration — that Power
might be as a mediator/' But as many points of dispute
were brought forward before matters were finally adjusted,
Alexander was eventually appointed arbitrator on the question
as to whether the United States could claim indemnity for
the slaves carried off bv British vessels in the war of 1812.
This was in 1816, and by the treaty of Ghent, concluded
between Great Britain and America in 1815, it was provided
that ^^ all territories, places, and possessions taken by either
party from the other during the war, shall be restored without
delay, or any slaves or other private property.''*

Great Britain contended that this meant, " those slaves only
were not to be carried off who, at the time of the ex-
change of the ratifications, were in the forts and other places
where they had been originally taken." This was the question
still at issue between the two nations ; it was purely a
pecuniary one, as the British colonists were then permitted to
keep slaves. Alexander's decision was, " that the United
States were entitled to claim from Great Britain a just in-
demnification for all slaves that the British forces had carried
away from places and territories of which the treaty stipulated
the restitution, and that the United States were entitled to
consider as having been so carried away all slaves transported
from the above-mentioned territory to British ships within
their waters, and who for that reason might not have been
restored." The Emperor caused it to be ofScially made known
that he had devoted ^' all his attention to the examination of
the grammatical question, and that his decision was founded on
the signification of the words in the text of the article."
Nevertheless, his decision certainly did not tend to increase
bis waning popularity in Great Britain.

* Bash's Eecollection of Besidence at the Court of London.

CHAPTER III.
1814—1815.

THE CONGRESS OP VIENNA.
JETAT. 36—37.

THE attention of the world, once concentrated on Moscow
and Paris, was fixed on Vienna at the end of Sep-
tember, 1814, for the most numerous assembly of Sovereigns,
statesmen^ and generals ever known had gathered in the
Austrian city. The Congress, adjourned from Paris, was to
have been opened there on July 29th ; but the visit of the
Sovereigns to England, and the necessity for Alexander to
return to his own States, caused a delay, gladly extended by
those who thought it to their interest to break up the present
unity of Europe. The King and the Czar arrived on Sep-
tember 28th. Alexander had sent forward Nesselrode, Capo
d'Jstria, Pozzo di Borgo, and Czartoriski with instructions, as
he wished to conclude everything as quickly as possible. Yet,
though the other Sovereigns and ministers, including Talley-
rand, Count de Noailles, Count de Latour, Narbonne, and the
Due de Dalberg, on the part of France ; the voung Princes
of Prussia, Hardeuberg, and Baron Humboldt, the Prince of
Denmark, the Kings of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, with their
heirs ; Lord Castlereagh, Lord Cathcart, Lord Clancarty, Sir
C. Stewart, Blucher, and Beauharnais had assembled by
the 13th and 15th, nothing was concluded in a few prelimi-
nary meetings, where Nesselrode boldly stated his master's
claim of Posen, Cracow, and Kalisch as part of Poland. The
discussion on this subject gave them full occupation, and he was
beginning to hold out hopes of satisfying France byMurat's depo-
sition andNapoleon's removal to some distantcolony,in exchange
for Talleyrand's acquiescence with the plans of Russia, when
Alexander appeared, and at once refused to depart either from
the treaty of April llth^ or from the Polish frontier as he had

122 The Conffress of Vienna.

already marked it out. To the uninitiated, the first period of
the Congress was all intoxicating gaiety ; but the f^tes and
dancing concealed many anxious hearts^ cruel disappointment^
and suppressed rage ; and to Alexander and the ministers of
the great Powers it was a time of hard work and incessant
vigilance. Even the Emperor's apparent amusements were
all to further his object, and the colony of Poles in Vienna
were enthusiastic in his praise. The first difficulty rose on
the subject of precedence, which he at once solved by sug-
gesting it should go by seniority; and of this no one else
could complain, as it placed himself last. His wife met him at
Vienna, and they were both guests in the Imperial palace,
where his two sisters, Mary and Catherine, and the Kings of
Denmark, Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg, with the Prince of
Baden, were also lodged. The Empress Elizabeth received her
husband's overtures for a complete reconciliation so coldly,
that after they parted at Vienna it is believed they were not
renewed, and when she had obtained his support for Baden,
which the other members of the Congress wished to diminish
in favour of Bavaria, she seemed to have fulfilled her object.
She had several conferences with Stein, but was thought to
feel annoyed by the presence of her sisters-in-law, of whom
the eldest then living, the Princess of Saxe- Weimar, was
twenty-eight, and still handsome and attractive. A repre-
sentative of the diplomacy of the last century was also there
in the old Prince de Ligne, whose wit entertained Catherine
on her journey to the Crimea, and even now formed a lively
element at the Congress. Razoumovski, once accused of ad-
miring Paul's first wife, was another veteran diplomatist, and
he took some part in the negotiations, which were officially
conducted for Russia by Nesselrode and Capo d'lstria, who held
jointly the portfolio of Foreign Afl^airs. When Alexander
ceased to be Francis's guest, they occupied a house connected
with his residence. Baron Humboldt assisted Hardenberg,
on account of the Prussian Chancellor's age and deaftiess ;
and on behalf of Austria there was Bai*on Weissembourg and
the unscrupulous Metternich, the admired of the drawing-
room, who courted married women as a means of influencing
their husbands.'*' Constantine arrived at Vienna with his
* Lord Holland^ who was no friend to Alexander, says of Mettemidii

Tlte Conffress of Vienna. 128

brother, whom Lamartine styles "the young and modest
Agamemnon of this Court of Kings/' He stayed there
six weeks, and was chiefly remarked for the deference he
showed Alexander ; " in truth/' writes the Count de Lagarde,
^' one would think him an enthusiast of submission as another
might be of liberty/' Several others made a similar observa-
tion. Gentz writes, that an audience with him left a very
bad impression. He says the same of La Harpe, who came to
Vienna to obtain his pupil's support to the Swiss Republic,
and who, " in a convei'sation with Pozzo di Borgo and myself,
betrayed his bad principles without reserve." The Prince of
Wiirtemberg, always at variance with his father, was employed
in courting his cousin, the widowed Catherine. He had been
married against his wishes to a Princess of Bavaria, from
whom he had obtained a divorce, and two years later she
became the fourth wife of the Emperor Francis. The en-
gagement l)etween the Prince and the Grand Duchess was
proclaimed before the close of the Congress.

Maria Louisa resided with her son at her father's palace at
Schonbrunn, but she called on the Empress of Russia in
Vienna, and could not resist joining iu some of the fStes
held in honour of her husband's enemies. There was a ques-
tion of annulling her marriage, but she objected to part with
her Imperial title, which in that case she must have lost. The
first meeting of the Sovereigns with their ministers was held
October 2nd^ when Alexander declared his views as to Poland
and Saxony. Not one of the foreign Governments except the
English ventured to raise objections when he explained them
in private audiences with their ministers ; but if he had ex-
pected opposition from England, his irritation and surprise
were extreme when Talleyrand, supported by Metternich, pro-
tested in the name of his master against any rearrangement of
the Russian and Prussian frontiers, and demanded the removal
of Napoleon and Murat. The conference was atormy, and
Alexander, '^ from being usually gentle, became haughty and

** He appeared to me little Buperior to the common run of continental
pohticians and courtiers, and clearly inferior to the Emperor of Bussia in
those qualities which secure an influence in great afiairs. Some who
admit the degrading, but too prevalent, opinion that a disregard of truth
is useful and necessary in the government of mankind, have on that score
maintained the contrary."

1

124 I7te Congress of Vienna.

bitter/^* He would not yield a village to Austria^ but would
dislodge her if necessary from Poland with 400^000 men.
They adjourned till October 3rd, to give foreign ministers time
to receive further instructions, while Castlereagh undertook a
direct mediation with Alexander; and Nesselrode advised
Talleyrand also to ask for an audience, and try to soothe the
Czar^s feelings, wounded at the French ingratitude. His
master had long been unable to account for the ill-feeling
Louis displayed towards him. What had he not done to
spare France's honour ? Her very existence as a strong Power
was entirely his work. He returned 300,000 prisoners with-
out demanding a ransom or even the usual payment of the
cost of their subsistence ; but while Louis hastened to present
the Prince Regent with the Order of St. Esprit, he had never
offered it to the Czar. No one cared less for such honours.
He laughed at his own officers if they thanked him with too
much eagerness for a decoration, and would not accept the
Order of the Garter unless the Prince Regent received a
Russian Order in exchange. But it was the studied slight he
could not help discerning, and moreover Louis pointedly re-
jected his counsels, and the result could already be seen in the
universal discontent which prevailed in France.

The Czar made Talleyrand wait a few dayd, and then re-
ceived him at Schoubrunn with unusual stiffness, abruptly
questioning him on the state of his country. " Very good.
Sire,'' said Talleyrand ; *' as good as your Majesty could desire ;
better than we could have hoped." " And the public spirit ?'*
" It improves every day." '* And the progress of liberal ideas?''
'^ Nowhere is this progress more real." " And the press ?*'
'^ It is free, except some indispensable restrictions at first."
"And the army excellent?" asked Alexander. "We have
130,000 men under the flags ; we could have 300,000 in a
month." "And the marshals?"- "Which?" " Oudinot."
" He is devoted." " Soult ?" " He has shown temper at
first. He was given Brittany, and is satisfied, being most
loyal." " And Ney ?" " He suffers from the loss of his
estates (in Germany), but he depends on your Majesty to put
an end to his sufferings." " And your Chambers ? It is
said they are not with the Government." " Who could say

* Thiers*s Coagres de Vienne.

The Congress of Vienna, 125

Bucli a thing to your Imperial Majesty ? There is, as in every
beginning, some diflBculty, but after twenty-five years of revolu-
tion it is marvellous that in a few months we should have at-
tained so much repose/' '^ And are you satisfied ?'' '^ Sire,
the confidence and the goodness of the King passes my hopes."
At these answers Alexander's face wore an incredulous ex-
pression (unfortunately justified), but he said quickly, " Let
lis finish our business/' " It depends on your Majesty," said
Talleyrand, " to complete it to your glory and the advantage of
Europe." The Czar then expressed his displeasure at the
resistance he met with from France, and said he thought the
Bourbons owed some consideration to Russia. Talleyrand did
not dispute it, but spoke of the rights of Europe, which he
ought to respect, above all after overturning a man who was
accused of hurling them at his feet. " I am not acquainted,"
said Alexander, " with these European rights which you now
invent to oppose me. Between Powers rights are the require-
ments (convenances) of each. I admit of no others." Then
Talleyrand, who had for years either counselled or aided every
scheme of aggression and public injustice on the Continent,
turned up his face, and raising his hands above his head, cried,
"Unfortunate Europe ! unfortunate Europe ! what are you going
to become ?"* But Alexander was in no mood for a theatrical
exhibition, and said to him, in a tone that Talleyrand had never
known from him, '^ Ah ! well, if it is so — war. I have 200,000
men in Poland ; let them chase me from it. Besides, I have
the consent of the rest ; you only make obstacles and break
an almost general agreement."t

It was a saying of Napoleon's, that if Talleyrand were
whipped his features would not express that anything un-
pleasant was going on ; and he had learned to maintain the
most placid exterior before many an angry and excited orator

• Thiers's Congr^s de Vienne.
t Lord Castlereagh speaks of the extreme difficulty of making Prussia
a useful ally in the present discussion, connected closely as she has been
with Russia ; but notwithstanding the King's liaiean with the Emperor,
it ou^ht not to be despaired of, under the known sentiments of the
Prussian Cabinet, as it was difficult to found a satisfactory balance in
Europe, unless Prussia could be induce* I to take a part. He says, " Tal-
leyrand is very averse to Russia-," and Mr. Rose, writing from Munich,
October 10th, speaks of the spell the Emperor of Russia seemed to have
laid on the King of Prussia's mind.

126 Tlie Congress of Vienna.

in the course of his sixty years' experience. He showed him-
self more grieved than vexed by this mood in the Emperor^
and answered that France did not seek war^ but did not fear
it ; if it was necessary to make it now for the maintenance of
European rights^ it would be aided by universal sympathy and
the help of many allies^ for he was convinced the concord the
Emperor imagined did not really exist. He bowed respectfully
but coldly, and went towards the door. Alexander perhaps
felt a little remorse for his anger with so infirm an old man ;
he immediately advanced and as usual shook him by the hand,
though his trembling grasp revealed his agitation.

In a letter from Berlin, Sir George Jackson* observes that
" the King of Wiirtemberg, the oldest of this conclave of Sove-
reigns, but the last I imagine in point of rank or the extent of his
territories, takes the pas of Alexander, the youngest in years,
but claiming to be the first and greatest among Sovereigns
(owing to the mode in which precedence was arranged). His
Imperial Majesty is not quite up to the mark just now, Ax)m
having been thrown by a vicious horse. He is recommended
by his physicians to abstain for a short time from his long
walks, which he takes in all weathers, from hunting, dancing,
and other fatiguing exercises. This, they say, puts him
a little out of humour.^' He seems to have followed this
advice only so far as to substitute a long ride on horseback
every morning for his usual walk, and constant fatigue added
to vexation brought on rather a serious illness. England
was just then particularly irritated against Russia by a recent
tariff to protect the native manufacturers, who would have had
no chance against British goods ; for many of them only sprang
into existence during the continental blockade. She was
alarmed by a prospect of the marriage of Alexander's younger
brother and sisters with Austria, Prussia, and France. She
could not help admitting that the Czar was acting with
toleration by Turkey, who had not yet fulfilled the provisions
of the treaty of Bucharest, but in every other quarter the
progress and strength of Russia gave her great uneasiness.

• BsBih Archives, vol. ii. More than one account, however, says pre-
cedence was given by the letters of the alphabet. Their ages were : the
King of Wiirtemberg, bom 1 754 ; of Bavaria, 1766: of Denmark, 1768 ;
the Emperor of Austria, 1768; the King of Prussia, 1770; Alexander,
1777.

The Congress of Vienna. 127

She therefore claimed the protection of the Ionian Isles, to
keep Russia out of the Mediterranean.

Francis opened the Congress with a ball at the Burg Palace,
where he danced with the Empress Elizabeth^ Alexander with
the Empress of Austria, and the King of Prussia with the
Queen of Bavaria. " The masters of the world/^ wrote the
Baron Ompteda from the scene of gaiety, " lived for the first
time on a footing of intimacy with their equals, and cheerfully
laying aside the burden of etiquette abandoned themselves
without restraint to a varied series of amusements. Thousands
of strangers poured into Vienna, and the sums they spent
defrayed the cost of the State entertainments. The Congress
was in full activity on my arrival about the middle of October.
It was reported it would be speedily dissolved, but weeks and
months passed, and the sessions continued, Sovereigns treating
each other like brothers.'^ He accompanied his relative, the
Prince de Ligne, to a masquerade. " Observe,^' said the
Prince, " that graceful and martial figure who is walking with
Beauharnais — that is Alexander. Yonder dignified-looking man,
on whose arm a fair Neapolitan is playfully hanging, is no less
a person than the King of Prussia. The lively mask, who
seems to put his Majesty's gravity somewhat to the test, is
perhaps an Empress, perhaps a grisette. Beneath that Venetian
habit you see an Emperor. That colossal figure, whose bulk is
not diminished by the ample folds of his domino, is the King
of Wiirtemberg. Here is Maximilian, King of Bavaria.
Beside him you see a little pale man, with an aquiline nose
and fair hair — that is the King of Denmark.^' At an evening
party at the Princess Bagration's, the entertainment consisted
in the drawing of a lottery, to which each of the Princes had
sent one or more gifts. Constantino won two porcelain vases
from the Royal manufactory at Berlin, which he oflcred to hi^
hostess. Alexander's prize was a box of mosaic work. He
gave it to the Princess Maria Esterhazy. There was Prince
Koslovsky, the Russian ambassador from Turin, an outspoken
man with many bon-mots, a favourite of the Czar, whom he
amused by his sallies ; Prince Ipsilanti, who had escaped from
Constantinople to seek an asylum at Alexander's Court, and
lost an arm at Bautzen; Count de Witt, who in the war of
1812 had raised four regiments on his mother's estates.

128 Tlie Congre%8 of Vienna,

'^ Alexander's officers, though most of them were still very
young, had already made so many campaigns, that war had
become their element, and they spoke of it like veterans re-
posing on their laurels/'

After Alexander's stormy interview with Talleyrand, Castle-
rcagh requested an audience, but the Czar anticipated his
visit. The English minister was instructed to yield all Saxony
to gain Prussia, but to resist on the subject of Poland. Austria
was to receive Lombardy, lUyria, and Venice without opposi-
tion. " Unfortunately,'' says Thiers, ** not one of the Powers
could give a lesson of moderation to the other, and if Alex-
ander had wished to trace the picture of English ambition
since the occupation of Malta to that of the Cape and the
Isle of France, Castlereagh would have been embarrassed,
but he repressed his indignation, though evidently unhappy."*
He explained, that if England had assisted him, the peace he
had conquered had been most beneficial to her. He had made
a promise to the Poles, and would keep it. He thought the
service he had rendeied Europe should give her in turn some
courtesy towards him. England disposed of Belgium for her
own safety, why should not he dispose of Poland for his?
Castlereagh said that with a less honourable character than
Alexander's, the alarm his project excited would close the
Congress at once ; and he entreated him, for the general peace
and his own glory, to renounce an inadmissible pretension.
They parted much dissatisfied.

Alexander was going to Pesth to visit his sister's tomb, and
Francis with several princes accompanied him. Those Hun-
garians belonging to the Greek Church, laymen as well as
priests, flocked from the neighbourhood to greet him as their
spiritual head. This was unexpected and unsought, for
Alexander wished to make the journey privately, but it in-
creased the Austrian Cabinet's fears respecting the extension
of the Russian frontier on that side. Before he left Vienna
he had another interview with Talleyrand and Metternich, for
the first, hoping to make an extra complication, and really
more objecting to the extension of Prussia than of Russia,
tried to out-manoeuvre Castlereagh, and point out that while
England abandoned Saxony, but was bent on leaving Poland

* Congrfes de Yienne.

77ie Conffresa of Vienna. 129

in its old divided state, France was willing to give Poland up
to Russia for the sake of preserving Saxony. Alexander was
more affable, and observed that in Paris he had found Talley-
rand entirely favourable ta the re-establishment of Poland.
"Assuredly, Sire/' answered the minister, uttering in a
respectful and firm tone a sentiment his correspondence
most flatly contradicts, " I, like all Frenchmen, should have
seen with real joy the re-establishment of Poland, but of the
true Poland. This, on the contrary, interests us little. It is
only a question of frontier between you and Germany, so we,
the established defenders of European public rights, only .
interest oureelves in Saxony .'' But this from Talleyrand, j ^*
who had drawn up Napoleon's defence of the murder of
the Due d'Enghien, the treaty of ^filsit, and the document for
annexing Northern Italy to France, rather lost its effect.
Alexander spoke calmly till that moment, when he exclaimed*
that rights and treaties w^e empty words used by each for
his own advantage; he was no longer the dupe of them,
and here there was no question of principle or of right, but
of interests, which e^ch person understood in his own way.
He had promised Saxony to Frederick William, and held more »
to his word than to those pretended treaties. The King of
Saxony was a traitor, who had deserted the cause of Europe.
Talleyrand showed as much horror for such sentiments as was
compatible with the respectful attitude he maintained through-
out. *' The expression traitor,'' he said, '* ought never to be
applied to a King, and above all by so august a mouth. Bight
is something very sacred, which prevents us from being in a
state of barbarism, and your Majesty will reflect more, I hope,
before defying the unanimous sentiments of Europe." Alex-
ander abruptly answered, that England and Austria abandoned
Saxony to him ; lis friend the King of Prussia would be King
of Saxony, and he should be King of Poland. He cut short
the conversation by saying that France might yet need his
support, which would depend on her syn^thy for Russia.
" Prance," replied Talleyrand, *^ asks no support ; she only
maintains principles." Nothing could move Alexander, and
the minister only parted from him good-bmnouredly by treat-
ing the question in a lighjt, ironical manner.

• According to TaUeyrand^s report
VOL. III. K

h

180 I%e Congress of Vienna.

The interview -with Mettemicli was very stormy, for the
Prussian ministers communicated to Alexander an Austrian
despatch, showing that it was the object of that Cabinet to
satisfy Prussia in order to isolate Russia. Alexander had
spared Austria most generously, both during and after her in-
vasion of Russia. He had vexed his own people by allowing
her general to take the nominal chief command of the Allies,
and now her one object was to set aside a treaty for which he
was responsible, for she opposed almost every article in it,
including the provision for the ex-Empress in Parma. Met*
temich informed him that his patience was inexhaustible, as
he had been accustomed for eight years to similar scenes with
Napoleon ; but he came away in an excited state, very rare
with him, and the same day Alexander set off for Hungary.
During the journey Francis took the opportunity to tell his
ally, as if to offer himself as a useful example, that he always
intrusted diplomatic matters to his ministers, who from habit
had more^ calmness and knowledge of affairs than their
Sovereigns, and their opinion might be considered as final.
He was forced to sacrifice himself, as he had sacrificed his
daughter, for his people. Alexander answered, that his own
tried character should reassure the Austrian people ; he never
wished to quarrel, and hoped peace might continue. But
Francis answered, though the character of a prince was cer-
tainly a guarantee,* yet a good frontier was worth more ; and
if they were to quarrel, the sooner the better. As to Prussia,
Alexander supported her extension, believing the King would
keep his promise to his people and grant them a constitution,
and his refusal to do so, and the imprisonment of the young
enthusiasts who had risen up against the French supremacy
in 1813, was the cause of great coolness between the two
monarchs in 1817. The Czar also thought the independence
of the smaller Powers in Germany was incompatible with its
strength, for, as in 1803-5-6, they were open to bribes or
any intrigue on the part of France, and were incapable of
maintaining themselves. By granting constitutions to those
countries imbued with liberal ideas, he hoped to satisfy the
republican party, still very strong, and by creating powerful

* Thiers, and Wellington Correspondence.

TAe Congress of Vienna. 131

and united monarchies to secure universal peace^ and make
such aggressions as those of Napoleon impossible for the future.
Bribery^ he thought, would be out of the question with a
representative government. He had every disposition ixri
strengthen England^ France, and Austria^ but his views were /
too enlarged for his contemporaries^ and he was not supported
even by England in the imposition of a constitution on the
restored moiiarchs. Ferdinand Yll. had already cast off his,
and dissolved the Cortes, which had nobly maintained his
claim to the throne. The Duke of Wellington, in a letter to
the Emperor, quoted Sicily, where the English had instituted a
constitutional government, as a proof of its failure when there
Was not a sufficient number of educated people in a country
to conduct such a form of administration ; and the line the
English ministers now took as to Poland was to prefer the old
divisions of the country under Austria, Russia, and Prussia, to
its restoration with a constitution, if under that guise it was
to be united to the Russian Empire.

After Castlereagh^s interview with Alexander, he addressed
a memorial, dated Vienna, October 12th, entreating the Em-
peror to use his '^ influence and example to inspire the councils
of Europe at the present conjuncture with that spirit of
forbearance, moderation, and generosity, which can alone
secure to Europe the repose for which your Imperial Majesty
has contended, and to your Majesty^s name the glory that
should surround it.'' He says it depends exclusively on the
Emperor whether the Congress shall prove a blessing to
mankind or a lawless scramble for power. He refers to the
treaty of Ealisch, February 28th, J813, in which Alexander
says the time will arrive when treaties will no longer be
traces, &c. Europe cannot see without alarm his plans
for Poland and the annexation of the Duchy, which opens a
prospect of renewing those tumultuary contests in which the
Poles so long embroiled both themselves and their neighbours,
&c. His Imperial Majesty should also weigh how far it can
be reconcilable with moral duty to embark in an experiment
likely to excite alarm and discontent amongst the neigh-
bouring States, and political ferment within his own do-
minions. He ends with almost a threat if the Emperor per-
sists in defving the opinion of the Continent.

k2

132 J%e Cofiffress of Vienna.

Alexander replied in an autograph letter^ dated October SOth,
on his return from Hungary :* —

''I have delayed answering you, my lord, till I had
well weighed the force of every argument you oppose to
the determination confided to you with regard to the
Duchy of Warsaw. I own I had some trouble to under-
stand your motives and their explanation, and to reconcile
your proceedings, the seutimeuts you express, and your
words at the opening of the Congress, with the past con-
duct of Great Britain/' He had refuted those arguments^
in an enclosed memorandum, and merely makes a few^
comments on its contents. '^ You say, my lord, you should
see me receive, even with satisfaction, a liberal and important
increase on the side of my Polish frontiers as a pledge of the
gratitude of Europe, provided it would not impose on my
neighbours an arrangement inconsistent with the obligations of
independent States to each other. As I share your opinion
entirely in this respect, and the answer in the memorandum
proves at length that I am not departing from it, I shall have
nothing to add on that matter, except to express my siurprise
at seeing you take to heart (rencherir) my neighbours' fears.

" I pass now to the article where you remind me of what I.
can never forget — the free and cordial assistance I received
from England when I struggled alone against all the Conti-
nent led by Napoleon. He who wishes to recall to another
the services he has rendered puts himself in the wrong. If
I thought you introduced this into your remarks with the
unjust suspicion that I did not sufficiently appreciate the
elevated character of the nation, and the enlightened and
amicable policy of Great Britain during the war, I lAouId not
have answered it But we are discussing the future, and it
is therefore natural to enter into a full explanation of the
past. The answer to the memorandum will show you, that all
the acquisitions I have made till now had no value except in a
strictly defensi>'e point of view. If in the death-struggle I
sustained in the heart of my States I had not been easy on
the side of the Turks, could I have devoted to the continuation
of the war the great means I consecrated to it^ and would
Europe have been freed? You give me to understand that

* Wellington Correspondence.

3%e Congress of Vienna. 188

England only consented to the acquisition of Norway in
favour of Sweden to guarantee to me the previous acquisition
of Finland. As for me^ I acted more generously^ and in
soliciting England to consent to the guarantee of Norway
I wished to procure one more ally to our cause. I could not
lose sight of the great maritime advantage Norway gave to
Sweden against me. However^ they counteracted each other ;
my capital was made unassailable^ while Sweden^ better conoen^
tratedj had nothing to fear. In this manner we both gained
in security, and all cause of dispute was taken away« If the
rules of equilibrium are not found in this case I do not
know where they exist. You see, my lord, I have not
mistaken the true sense of those acts of the policy of yovr
Cabinet which you recall, and am far from wishing to under-
value them. The future fate of Europe undoubtedly depends
on the issue of the present Congress, and the object of all
my efforts and of all my sacrifices has been to see the
members of our alliance recover or acquire dimensions which
shall be capable of maintaining the general equilibrium. I
am therefore ignorant how, with such principles, the present
Congress can become a hearth of intrigues and hatred, a
scene of iniquitous efforts to acquire power. I forbear to
turn this phrase against any of my allies, extraordinary as it
seems to find it in your letter. The world that has witnessed
the principles of my conduct from the passage of the Vistula to
that of the Seine, may judge if the desire of acquiring a popula-
tion of one million more of souls, or of arrogating any prepon-
derance to myself, could have animated me or guided any of my
measures. The purity of my intentions renders me strong.
If I persist in following them out as regards Poland, I am
conscientiously convinced it will be favourable to the general
iadvantage even more than to my personal interest Whatever
shadows you may try to affix to this moral policy, it may per-
haps find appreciators among nations which still understand
disinterested benevolence. The details in my answer will, I
trust, help to calm you for the sinister future you predict for
the Powers to whom I am allied by all that friendship
and confidence can render most indissoluble. On their part I
count on its being reciprocated. When such elements exist,
we need not fear whatever brands of discord mav be cast

134 Tke Congress of Vienna.

among us, but that the Congress will procure a state of
things honourable for each member of it and peace for all.
As to what concerns my care of my own subjects and my
duties towards them^ it is for me to know them^ and nothing
but the honesty of your motives could make me revert to this
passage of your letter after the impression it first gave me.
I hope that my answer proves my sincere sentiments for you
have not changed. " Alexandeb.^^

In the reply to Lord Castlereagh which the Emperor
enclosed^ he says the author '^ could not introduce his subject
with a more suitable preface than the treaty of Kalisch,
where the Emperor^s State maxims and principles were dis-
played. It was the first bond for the independence of States.
It was Russia who advanced before them, after exterminating
the French forces which had devastated her provinces^ and
who wished that her old allies should recover all their power.
The Emperor devoted extraordinary means towards it^ and
neither Moscow in ashes, nor his desolated towns and fields^
could check him in this enterprise^ to which his moderation
had attracted so many appliances. The author wishes to
show that the Emperor has laid aside his first principles, that
he despises the faith of treaties, that he threatens the safety
of his neighbours. His Majesty has calmly read such strange
accusations^ though he did not expect them from the person
who has entered into the lists. His conduct has already
refuted them, and he hopes this answer will serve to allay all
alarms^ and to render such remonstrances unnecessary for the
future.^' He denies the charge brought by Castlereagh, that
he only restored Dantzic and its territory as a favour to
Prussia^ for he gave it up to her spontaneously as soon as it
was reconquered. He attacks one by one the other points
specified in the remonstrance, and shows the territory claimed
by Russia is not out of proportion to that acquired by Austria
and Prussia ; the first having recovered her old Polish posses-
sions, by far the richest portion, with its mines of coal,
sulphur^ and salt ; and the last obtaining the most advanced
and cultivated parts of the Duchy, filled with manufactories
such as the rest of the country does not contain ; while the
portion he proposes to unite to Russia has been ruined by war^

I^e Congress of Vienna. 185

famine^ pestilence^ and emigrations. He states the compara-
tive populations and revenues^ and says " that these facts
considered^ no impartial man can call this acquisition immense^
as it is styled in the English memoir. Giving quite a new
latitude to the Duchy of Warsaw, the author asserts that the
Russian power will be established by its means in the heart of
Germany. When a reasoning goes into extremes it ceases to
persuade. Besides, a few remarks will be enough to annihilate
it.'' He again shows that Sweden's loss of Finland has been
more than balanced by the gain of Norway. ''As to the
frontier line obtained in Persia, it is more easily defended ; but
notwithstanding this advantage, the safety and peace of that
quarter still require very numerous garrisons, which must be
^renewed every year on account of the unhealthy climate.
The acquisition of a part of Bessarabia supplies us with
a better defence by means of some fortresses. In every other
respect it is an insignificant advantage after a long and
murderous war. Now, when everything shows that the'^
Emperor is only anxious to establish a system, of defence, not
of aggression, when it is remembered that his only means of
repulsing the last invasion of the great League was in
sacrificed Moscow, how can fears be still entertained with^
regard to his views and intentions V Returning to the ques-*
tion of the Duchy of Warsaw, he treats '' the animated pic-
ture of these uneasy and fickle Poles called to rally round a
royal standard, renewing the scenes of the past, conspiring
against their neighbours, and destroying all hope of peace and
happiness for the future," as purely imaginary. He says,
" that Austria and Prussia would not fail to make common
cause in case of extremity, and might easily invade his
southern provinces, so that the only danger was for Russia."
He proves that Vienna was perfectly defensible from invasion
on the side of Russia, and that the different Polish fortresses
are necessary to secure the navigation of the Bog, Narew, &c.,
and the Palatinate of Lublin. Lord Castlereagh quoted the
old Partition Treaty of 1797 : " But when Austria and
Prussia have contributed as allies of France to despoil Russia
of the greatest part of the "Polish provinces, when Russia has
been obliged to reconquer them, it becomes really a new
division^ and the treaty of 1797 exists no more. Suppose

\

186 SJhe Congress of Vienna.

the name of Poland is restored^ and a part of the Duchy of
Warsaw reunited to Bussia^ whi^ are the dangers which would
result from it for Austria and Prussia ? None^ since the Emptor
offers to both those Powers the most fcH'mal guarantee of the
parts of Poland which remain under their sceptres. None^
since this restitution being contrary^ according to the author of
the memorandum^ to the system of Austria^ of Prussia^ and
of the British ministry^ the least attempt will unite all these
Powers, whom Turkey would readily join^ against Russia^
isolated and abandoned to her own resources. This avowal is
doubtless one of the first of the kind made in diplomacy, but
it is worthy of the purity of the Emperor's intentions. It is
not a little more or less territory, it is not a few strong posts^
which secure the general equilibrium ; it is a similarity of in-
U terests, with a common tendency in the moment of danger ; and
in this view the balance is assuredly not in favour of Russia.^'
The Emperor added, that far from the Poles becoming
dangerous by the restoration of their nationality, he believed
' it was the surest means of calming the restlessness with which
they were reproached, and conciliating all interests. He was
convinced that time and events would prove it. He thought
the accusation utterly unfounded, that he had abused the
language of treaties or of his engagements with Austria and
Prussia, who, freed from Napoleon's yoke, were considerably
increased; and he could not imagine how the writer proved
that, because the Emperor thought of restoring the title of
kingdom to Poland, Europe's deliverance and all the advantages
acquired by the Allies would be reduced to nothing. He
thought the idea equally absurd that, according to Lord
, Caatlereagh, the whole work of the Congress would be sus-
pended so long as the Emperor adhered to his projects.
'* If,'' he continues, *' after thinking over the contents of this
answer the author adheres to the same opinion, and is not
convinced; if he can succeed in dissolving the Congress for
one poinjt, while so many other more important remain to be
arranged, the Emperor will not have to reproach himself with
this misfortune. On the contrary, he will expose to England
and to Europe the nature and extent of his demands. Those
people who have seen him fight for their liberty and been
witnesses of his moderation^ will learn the cause which pee*

\ 1

I%e CoTigresB of Vienna. 137

-vented, the general re-establishment of order^ happiness^ and
peace, for which so much blood has flowed ; though, as to the
Sovereigns, his allies, his brothers in arms, nothing should ever
disturb his friendship for them,'' &;c. Castlereagh certainly did
'^ go into extremes '' when he said " the conquest of Polanct"^
was effected principally to bring the Bussian nation into closer ^
communication with the rest of Europe, and to open a vast
field and a higher and more striking theatre for the exercise
of her strength and talents, and for the satisfaction of her
pride, her passions, and her interests/' This may have been j <
the result, but it was not the cause ; and it was moreover!
Pitt and the English Cabinet who persuaded Russia to descend
into the Eiuropean arena. It was on moral grounds that they
induced Paul to take up arms against the French Republic,
and Great Britain's representative now objected when Alex-
ander gave moral reasons for claiming a share of the spoil.
He ironically proposed that Alexander should give up his own
Polish provinces, and erect the whole of Poland into an in-
dependent kingdom. '' This would be," he says, ^' it is true, a
sacrifice on the part of Russia according to the usual calcula-
tion of States ; but unless your Imperial Majesty be disposed
to make these sacrifices to your moral duty at the expense of
your empire, you have no moral right to make such experi-
ments to the detriment of your allies and your neighbours/'
He also talked of Prussia and Austria signing ^^ their own
ruin," if they agreed to make over the whole of the Duchy to
Russia; whereas many statesmen asserted it could only be a
source of weakness to Russia, and it has certainly proved so
rather than a source of strength. England, who had kept
Malta after the peace of Amiens, contrary to treaty^ for her
own interests, not being able to show, like Russia, that the
acquisition was necessary for self-defence, could hardly con-
demn Russia from a moral point of view. Lord Castlereagh
answered Alexander's letter, November 4th, again dwelling on
the danger and injustice to Austria and Prussia if the Duchy
was not shared among them, and condemning the notion that
a Power should receive a territorial recompense for great
sacrifices. He received a second memorandum on the subject
from Alexander on the 21st, written while confined to his
zoom with an attack of fever and erysipelas. '' To create

1 38 Tlie Congress of Vienna.

suppositions/^ it stated^ ''merely to refute them^ is not dis-

cussion/^

" The author of the memoir gives Russia credit for intentions
she has never had. She does not reserve the decision of the
fate of the Duchy of Warsaw for herself. She desires to re-
gulate it according to the principles of strict equity and in
union with the allied Powers. If the Emperor had founded
his policy on exclusive and private interests when Napoleon's
army^ assembled^ it may be said^ at the expense of Europe^
had found her tomb in Russia, his Majesty would have made
peace with France, and without exposing himself to the
chances of a war so much the more uncertain in its result as
it depended on the determination of other Cabinets, and with-
out imposing new sacrifices on his people, would have con-
tented himself on the one part with the safety acquired for his
empire, and on the other with acquiescence in the conditions
that Bonaparte, taught by a sad experience, would have has-
tened to propose to him. But the Emperor, in the generous
enterprise to which he had devoted himself, made use of the
noble impulse of his people to second the wishes of all Europe.
He fought for a cause on which the destinies of the human
race depended "with disinterested views. Faithful to his prin-
ciples, he constantly worked to favour the interests of the
Powers rallied to the common cause, in placing his own in the
second rank. He lavished his resources to make their united
efforts prosper, in the firm persuasion that his allies, far from
reproaching a conduct so pure, would have been assured that he
was ready to subordinate all private considerations to the
success of an enterprise undertaken for the general good.''
He shows that his whole aim throughout has been to restor e
the European equilibrium, that unless Russia was strengthened
by the Duchy she would not be on a level with the other
Powers, and that it was conquered by her arms without any
[foreign assistance. He dwells on the extent of the British
dominions all over the world, Austria established in Italy and
Illyria, which rendered her the mistress of the Adriatic, and
assured her a preponderating influence in Turkey. Prussia
inheriting the northern part of the old German Empire, and
extending from the Vistula and Elbe to the Rhine. '' It is of
the greatest importance to Russia to put an end to the un-

The Congress of Vienna. 1 89

easiness of the Poles. Longer repressed they will react one 1
day under foreign influence^ and that reaction must trouble:
the repose of Russia and of all the north. Experience sup-/

ports this observation The author of the memoir,

drawn on by the vivacity of the discussion, seems no longer to
appreciate Europe's present independent and happy state, and has
forgotten the desperate situation from which she has emerged.

If all Europe, including Great Britain, would restore'

everything and return to her condition before the war, the
Emperor of Russia would be the first to give an example
of such great sacrifices to contribute to this result, but the
measure would never be listened to by the rest. Great
Britain herself would be called upon to make important
restitutions for which she is by no means prepared, however
essential they may be to the general good and to the true
independence of other nations in external relations. The
part of a mediator is no doubt very useful when it serves to
bring people together ; but, in a contrary case, it is better to
leave the interested parties to settle their own differences,
particularly when friendship and confidence constitute the
most active principle of their negotiations.'' He considered
the statistics of Lord Castlereagh enclosed to be much over-
drawn, but concluded by saying, ''the true character of a
conciliator belongs pre-eminently to Great Britain, and her
ministers in sustaining it in all its purity might render the
greatest service to the cause of Europe and entire humanity."
He quotes several treaties, and refutes the accusation of
having broken them, and accompanies the memorandum with
a short letter, in which he hopes that this will be the close of
their private correspondence, and that Lord Castlereagh will
in future send his letter through the usual channel (the
ministers). He shows that " England's proposal^ far from re*
storing the balance of Europe, would give a preponderating
weight to Austria and Prussia, while France, circumscribed by
the excess of a colossal ambition, without a navy or conmierce^
and Spain were certainly not equal to the rest.'' When
speaking of the combination which would control future
Russian ambition, he probably little thought that this predic-
tion would be fulfilled while his minister Nesselrode uas still
in ofiSce^ though he himself would have been long in the grave.

1 40 T7ie CovgresB of Vienna.

He adds a table of statistics that he believed to be more
correct than Lord Castlereagh's. The treaty of 1797, which
the English minister enclosed to the Emperor, was ratified at
St. Petersburg, and engaged the contracting Powers never to
restore the name of kingdom to Poland,*

Castlereagh had argued on the same subject with the
Emperor ever since he joined the Russian army in 1814. He
wrote to Wellington, October 20th : " You see we are still at
anchor. The Emperor is beset by the Poles, and has, I fear,
embarrassed himself by promises. If I could bring Austria
aud Prussia fairly to bear upon him, I think we should yet get
a tolerably good frontier from him.'^

Lord Liverpool (the Prime Minister of Great Britain) wrote .
on the 21st, " that the English must take care not to get the
discredit of resisting the Emperor's proposal on a principle of
partition/^ In another letter he complains of the Emperor's
obstinacy , and that he has some talent, but no common sense. He
believes Poland will be his ruin, '^ Affairs,'' writes Mr. Cooke to
Lord Liverpool from Vienna, " stick with Mettemich, who I be-
lieve will never play a great straightforward game but by mere
necessity, and when he finds that all little and side games fail.f
I think if the Emperor can be brought to bend on the point of
Poland, Prussia will not object to preserve Saxony in part.

Austria and Prussia are getting closer Pozzo di Borgo

talked to me in mournful tones," the Emperor having had a
warm dispute with him and Nesselrode : '^ when he finds Prussia
fall off he will be furious." In the mean time, the Hanoverian
minister had procured a better frontier for Hanover, and the
King of England exchanged his title of Elector for that of
King, which. Count Munster wrote to the Prince Regent, was
^' formally recognized by Austria, Prussia, and all Germany,
except Baden, who was silent, because excluded from the
meeting. The Emperor of Russia, though present, made no
answer. I have begged Nesselrode to explain this silence.
He assures me he will make the Emperor's answer on his
return from Hungary, for which Alexander had set out on the
24th, meaning to return at the end of the week ;" adding that,
'^ the adoption of the royal title caused some embarrassment

* Cooke says Alexander did not show this correspondence to his
.ministers till He had sent his answers.

f Wellington Supplementary Despatches, vol. iz.

The Congress of Vienna, 141

to the ministers of Russia^ since the Poles would appeal to it as
a precedent/'

In a memorandum by Mr. Yansittart^'^ gi^ng the opinion of
the English ministers^ they are said to be running the risk
of being left alone by Austria and Prussia^ who were wavering
in their resistance to Russia^ of incurring the jealousy of Rassia,
and being looked upon at home as the advocates of a system of
partition. It was feared Russia might revenge herself by
bringing forward the question of maritime law at the Congress.
The Emperor said to Castlereagh^ that Russia would gain more
power by acquiring half the Duchy of Warsaw as a province than
the whole as the kingdom. The English ministers were also of
opinion that ''a minority in Russia^ or a weak reign^ might bring
about a separation between Poland and Russia which would be
supported by all the European Powers.'^ It also became evident
that Parliament would not understand another war with
Russia for the sake of maintaining Poland in its divided con-
dition, and to prevent the Emperor from giving it a separate
government and constitution. The partition of Saxony was
also opposed by the English press. A pamphlet by a Pcde,
published in England^ called '^ An Appesd to the Allies on
behalf of Poland/' had a large circulation^ and was presented
to the Princess Charlotte. The Poles themselves were almost <
unanimous in supporting Alexander's views; so the opposition'
to the Czar must be raised on the question of Saxony^ and
the wickedness of dividing an independent sovereignty, if the
British ministeiB then in power expected to keep their posts.

Wellington wrote from Paris, November 5th : " M. de
Blacas is very much displeased at the continued obstinacy of
the Emperor of Russia respecting Poland and Saxony. He
said the King, and most probably the Prince Regent, would
withdraw their ministers from the Congress, declaring they
would not acknowledge these arrangements, and Europe would
remain in a feverish state, which sooner or later must end
in war.^'t Talleyrand also declared at the Congress that

• Wellington Correspondence.
t A letter from Prince Maurice de Lichtenstein to the Dnehess
d* Abrant^s, dated October 12th, gives another aspect : " The Emperor of
Russia is always amiable and good, as yon have known him. He often
speaks to me of Paris. Believe me, that you have not deceived yourself',
and ke is really a man truly good and very excellent.'*

1 42 Tlie CovgresB of Vienna.

" France was better prepared for war than any country in
Europe/'

Yet the Sovereigns met daily at hunts and reviews, at one
of which the Emperors and Kings assisted on horseback, while
a carriage drove on to the ground containing the Empresses
of Austria and Russia, with the Queen of Bavaria and the
Grand Duchess Catherine sitting in the back seat, and the rest
of the Court ladies in various vehicles. A lively writer enters
into a personal description of these celebrities — ^the strong-
minded Austrian Empress, who liked shooting hares; the
Prince of Baden, with a kleptomaniac inclination ; the hand-
some Princes of Saxe-Coburg; the sad-looking but sharp-
tongued Empress of Russia, who was dancing in the same
polonaise with her husband, where nobles, Kings, Emperors,
generals, Greek chiefs, and Turkish pashas were jostled toge-
ther with subalterns and commoners. All at once the dance
stopped, though the miisic proceeded, and the restless Alex-
ander leaned over the head of a rather short dancer in front
of him, and somewhat impatiently asked his wife, who was two
couples in advance, if she could not proceed. " Always
polite,^' she answered, in a voice loud enough to be heard by
many others than himself, and in an indescribably sarcastic
tone. He said nothing, but coloured and bit his lip as he
caught the eye of another dancer, and a moment afterwards

/the march continued. '^ Impressionable, but skilful as an
Asiatic, most amiable, good, and fond of pleasing, Alexander

^ could not long sustain the part of an irritated man,'' writes
Thiers. " He went on foot in the streets, frequented the
drawing-rooms of Vienna like a private person, carefully set
his rank aside with the Princes who crowded to the Congress,
and succeeded in gaining them, for few men possessed the
talent to the same degree.'^ Francis had no personal objection
to the reconstitution of Poland under Russia, but he wanted
to keep Cracow, and also to obtain the circle of Tarnopol ; for
as long as it remained in Russia's hands it was a living
memorial of Austria's humiliation. He was more easy for
his future safety when he learned the marriage was broken off
between the Grand Duchess Anna and the Due de Berri, but
he was vexed at the Czar opposing himself to Lorraine and
Alsace being seized by Austria. He was piqued at a matri-

Tfie CongresB of Vienna, 148

monial alliance with Austria being rejected for the second
time^ by Russia^ and he disliked Alexander's liberal views.
On the other hand^ his daughter was appealing to the
Czar> both in person and by letter^ not to let the Congress
deprive her of Parma^ claimed by Ferdinand YII.^ and the
Empress Beatrice presented him with a flag embroidered
with the words^ '^ Indissoluble union between Francis
and Alexander/' The Vienna Cabinet was of opinion that
war was necessary to restore the prestige of the Austrian
arms and also her position in Europe; but in this respect
Francis^ from family considerations^ had placed his empire
below that of Russia by renouncing his ancient title and
adopting a new one^ for this act at once made Alexander the
senior Emperor in Europe.

On October 30th the ministers assembled again> when
Talleyrand delivered another message from Louis on the
subject of Napoleon's removal from Elba^ as it was only four
hours from Italy and forty-eight from France. He asked for
him to be transferred to the Azores. Francis approved^ as he
would there be far away from Murat^ but Castlereagh doubted
if the British opposition would stand such a measure, and
advised the French Government to pay the 2,000,000 francs
stipulated by the treaty of April 11th. Alexander, Harden-
berg, and Metternich all pressed the same advice on Talleyrand,
thoufch the last two, like their Sovereigns, willingly agreed to
Napoleon's removal. '^ Alexander raised the only obstacle.
He was the true author of the treaty, and too often reproached
with it to make it possible for him to forget it. Nevertheless,
it was a point of honour with him that it should be observed,
either as to Beauharnais, Maria Louisa, or Napoleon's pen-
sion. He was astonished at Austria's conduct in trying to
get rid of her former neighbour, so nearly connected Mvith her
Emperor ;"t and Thiers says his language was very imprudent
since his recent irritation against Metternich. ^^K it was

* Three connections between the Imperial honses of Anstria and Russia
had been prematorely cat short, so that the Empress-Dowager had
become superstitious on the subject. The wife of the Uzarovitz Alexis was
sister to the Empress of Germany of that day ; Alexander's aunt had
been Francis's first wife, and died within a year ; and Alexander's sister,
already mentioned, who died in 1801.

t Thiers, Congr^s de Yieime.

144 7%e Conj/ress of Vienna.

necessary they would unloose the monster who seemed to give
so much alarm to Austria and her dlies/^ This speech,
though only the unreflecting utterance of a hot-tempered man^.
made a painful impression. ''But we should calumniate/'
adds Thiers, '' one of the noblest characters of modem times if
we believed this was Alexander's only motive for opposing a
violation of the treaty with the prisoner of Elba. His honour,
his generosity^ would never have . consented to H, and his
colleagues were so certain of this that no one tried to reason
with him, though it was a measure of prudence which all the
rest wished to carry out.'' One of the first measures passed in
the Congress was to secure the throne of Sardinia to the
house of Carignan^ in case of the failure of heirs to the house
of Savoy, as Victor Emmanuel I. had no sons. Genoa
had surrendered to Lord William Bentinck on the promise of
being restored to her ancient independence as a Republic, but

^ she was transferred by the English to Sardinia, and Alex-
ander's influence alone preserved the integrity of Switzerland.
Between the meetings of the Congress^ Castlereagh tried
hard to detach Prussia from Russia, and easily alarmed the
ministers and the military, who, with full confidence of the
support of England as to Saxony, in their turn alarmed the
King, and persuaded him to reclaim Warsaw. But Alexander's
recent journey to Moscow and Yilna kept fresh in his mind
the losses and sufferings of his country during the war, and
the flatteries of the gay world in Vienna were unable to

^. extinguish them from his remembrance. He felt he could
' not return to Russia without some fruit of the campaign in
Germany and France, undertaken contrary to the wishes of his
subjects, or without even procuring for them a well-protected
frontier. He invited the King to dine alone with him at the
Russian Embassy, where he had removed with the Empress,
and then he spoke with the greatest warmth, recalling the
friendship they had vowed for each other in 1813, when they
met on the Oder, after years of coolness, and had promised to
fall together or to restore independence to Prussia and Europe.
He reminded Frederick William tbat his most faithful Russian
subjects advised him to remain on the Vistula, and to accept
Napoleon's ofiers of peace, leaving ungrateful Germany to her

* Now reigning over Italy.

r

The Conffreas of Vienna. 145

fate. Nevertheless he held out his hand to the Grermans^
and without this devotion on the part of Russia, Prussia
would still contain only her reduced number of 5,000,000
subjects, and Germany be yet enslaved. The union of Prussia
and Russia produced the change of fortune which at the
present moment enabled Germany to hold her head high in
the councils of Europe. But now the allied Powers all strove
to profit by this change of fortune, excluding the Russians, to
whom they were indebted«for it. To confine them to the Nieraen
was to leave them without reward for the blood they had poured
from the shores of the Oder to the Seine, for after the dis-
astrous campaign in Russia, Napoleon offered her the Vistula
as a frontier, and there would have been no fear of his ever
renewing the invasion : it was such as a man only undertakes
once in his life. The Russian army might have returned
home without exposing itself to new risks, without sacrificing
more than 200,000 soldiers to continue the campaign of 1813,
when it had already taken possession of Warsaw. Yet the
great resolution (wisely opposed by Kutuzov) to cross the
Vistula was forgotten. The Allies, like Austria, whom notably
it was necessary to force (violenter) to dr^w them into this
European crusade, and who had not expended a quarter of
the blood shed by Russia, wished to obtain the sole fruits of
victory. Not an Austrian village had been burned, yet they
refused to the Russians the price of the ruins of Moscow.
The diplomatists only followed their trade, but honourable
Princes like Alexander and Frederick William ought not to
allow ingratitude to embroil them with each other, but for the
benefit of their people, for their private happiness, they ought
to live and die attached.

Frederick William felt strongly the obligations of Germany \
towards Alexander, and that if the Czar had treated with^^
Napoleon after the Beresina, the present position of Prussia
would have been widely different. He yielded to Alexander's ^
impassioned eloquence, embraced him, and swore to remain ^
faithful. But Alexander said this was not enough without the
word of hii( ministers. He had no confidence in them.
Frederick William called Ilardenberg, and the explanation
begun with the King was finished with the Chancellor. Above
aU, Alexander wished to possess the town of Warsaw j without it

VOL. III. h

146 The Congress of Vienna.

he oould not fulfil in any measure his promise to the Poles ;
and when Hardenberg related this scene to Castlereagh^ he
said he never saw anything like it^ and that before such vehe-
mence resistance was iinpossible. He was obliged to yield
the point of the Duchy, and engage to support Alexander's
policy, on which the Emperor sent an order to Prince Repnine,
who still occupied Saxony with a Russian army, to march into
Poland, and unite with the troops concentrated on the Vis-
tula ; and he invited Frederick William to replace that army
with a Prussian force, and at once possess himself of the coun-
try. Repnine had governed Saxony provisionally, and left his
name in the grateful recollections of the inhabitants, where his
army was found less oppressive than the presence of even their
native troops. An immediate outcry was raised against this
measure, especially by the smaller German States, who, in-
fluenced by Talleyrand, and led by the Prince of Saxe-Cobui^.
were opposed to the partition of Saxony. They accused
Austria of weakness, and Metternich adroitly answered that,
far from being displeased, he was rejoiced to see the Russians
return to the North. They even went so far as to draw up a
protest against the two usurpers, but the Prince of Wiirtem-
berg, fearing to imperil his matrimonial hopes, stopped its
being presented, and the Prince of Saxe-Coburg was persuaded
to withdraw for having displeased his chief protector, Alex-
ander ; it was feared by his family that his Duchy would not
. be extended to the proportion of their demands. Count
Munster wrote to the Prince Regent that Alexander had a
violent scene with the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, and among
other things said he coimted dynasties and so-called heredi-
tary rights as nothing compared with the interest of States — a
sentiment considered most shocking and revolutionary by the
politicians at Vienna. Prince Leopold undertook to conduct
the negotiation in his brother's place, and though a grant of
territory was conceded to him he never obtained the whole, as
it depended on an exchange of lands with Prussia, which, with
*' remarkable bad faith,'' he writes, she afterwards refused to
give^p to Coburg when the Congress was dissolved and the
affairs rested only with the Prince and the King. The Austrian
Cabinet now deputed Schwartzenberg to try his personal in-
fluence with Alexander, who had been very civil to him since

The Congress of Vienna, 147

he came to Vienna. As flatteries had failed^ the marshal tried
to work upon him by appealing to his sensibility or his fears.
He told him he once had a blind faith in him^ but now repented
of it^ or that he ever commanded an army in alliance with
Prussia and Russia^ wishing, in fact, that Austria was still
merely the satellite of France. He was almost as positive as
the Czar ; but Austria, who had quietly obtained Lombardy,
Venice, Ulyria, and Dalmatia, and was negotiating for the
restoration of the Tyrol from Bavaria, and the Valteline from
Switzerland, could not consistently advocate moderation.
When Castlereagh received his orders to make a stand on the
partition of Saxony instead of on the union of Poland, the
Prussian ministers in their turn were enraged, and wished to
declare war with Austria and France. Here Alexander was a
peace-maker, for it was really the last thing he wished, and he
saw that neither of the three was averse to it. He checked
their menacing language,* and saw Talleyrand, who again
urged the peace of the world, the glory of Europe depended
on the re-establishment of legitimacy to its full extent, and he
might satisfy Prussia by restoring the Duchy of Warsaw to
her. '' You wish,^' answered Alexander, '^ that I should de*
spoil myself in order to satisfy you.'^ He asked the reason of
the extensive armaments France was preparing, and what use
Louis proposed for them. Talleyrand would not raise his
voice in his reply, and secretly enjoyed obliging Alexander to
sit down close to him to catch his words, which were to the
eflect that old soldiers returned from abroad were enlisted (the
very soldiers Alexander had freely restored), and these were at
the service of England and Austria if there was war on account
of Saxony and Poland.t

All this time Murat manifested great uneasiness in Naples.
He was refused admission to the Congress, owing to Beauhar-
nais, who hated him, revealing his offer ta the Viceroy to help
him to the throne of North Italy after his. treaty with Austria,

• Thiers,
t Thiers. At this very time, from the Ihxk« of Wellin^^ton's Corre-
spondence, it appears that an outbreak was daily expectea in France^
owing to the nnpopnlarity of the Boval family, ilven the Duke's own
life was in danger; and the British Government transferred him to
Vienna, for the sake of removing him from Paris. As the agitators were
Bonapartists and agents of Napoleon, if he did advocate Napoleon'a
removal from Elba to St. Helena, it was merely a matter of self-defence.

1.2

■^

148 The Congress of Vienna*

- - — — - II I

because he feared Alexander's proclamation of March 8 1 si
might include him among the proscribed members of Napo-
leon's family. Hitherto Austria was the only Government
which had concluded peace with him^ but she was inclined to
cast him off to please France. Oldenburg once more became
a subject of discord^ but Alexander said if he had quarrelled
with Napoleon rather than abandon his uncle's States to
France^ it was not likely he should yield it to any other
Power. Westphalia was dis^tolved^ and the Orand Duchy of
Berg and the Rhine provinces made over to Prussia ; Baden
and Bavaria^ Bavaria and Austria^ and Prussia and Coburg^
disputed over their frontiers \ but of all the Sovereigns and
ministers present, Alexander alone regarded the feeling and
interests of the populations^ and studied to adjust them ac-
cording to the national sentiments. If Norway was an excep-
tion^ he at least secured her the most really liberal constitution
in Europe. His health had been disturbed since the beginning
of October^ and early in November he took a chill which soon
confined him to his bed with an attack of fever and erysipelas.
The foreign ministers hoped this would lead to his affairs
being trusted to Nesselrode and Czartoriski for the future,
as they might find them more pliable than their master.
Munster writes to the Prince Begent, November 27th, that
he had recently invited them again to his presence, '^ and ex-
pressed regret to Metternich that his temper had carried
him away." Talleyrand, among other awkward revelations,
quoted a letter from Metternich to Napoleon as late as
March 23rd, 1814, inviting him to renew negotiations for
peace. ^' Hardenberg has now taken charge of the Polish
question, and had a long conference on Wednesday last with
Alexander, who is confined to the house with erysipelas in the
foot. He represents to him all the misery a new war would
bring on Europe, the light in which Alexander would appear
as the cause of this war, while hitherto he has been admired
as the restorer of continental liberty. Finally, with the con-
sent of Austria, he proposed to the Emperor to cede to Austria
Zamosk and its district, as well as Cracow as far as the Warta.
Prussia asks for herself Thorn and the territory as far as the
Warta (thus joining the Austrian Empire, and forming a belt
between Russia and Germany). He had great hopes from

The CongreBB of Vienna, 149

the maimer in which the Emperor listened to him^ and to-day
he expects an answer/^*

Castlereagh writes^ Novemher 2l8tj that Czartoriski promised
him to urge the Emperor to make some concessions. '^ The
Emperor^s illness is an erysipelas brought on by over-fatigue
and cold. He had danced without intermission the whole night,
and almost every night since he came to Vienna^ in the hottest
rooms, and been on horseback early the following morning.
The disorder will probably confine him for ten days or a fort-
night.^' On November 26th he writes to Lord Liverpool, that
he had exhausted arguments with the Emperor on the subject
of Poland ; and Wellington afterwards stated that language
could not be stronger than was used both verbally and in
writing to Alexander to give up his Polish scheme ; but the
Czar continued as obstinate as before. ^^ The general senti-
ment of dissatisfaction and alarm occasioned by his conduct/'
writes Castlereagh, '^ is becoming too strong and universal to
be any longer a secret from him. It exists extensively among
his own subjects, and I have reason to believe this fact has
not been concealed from him. Under these circumstances, and
profiting by the reflections for which his illness has afforded
an occasion, perhaps his Majesty may moderate his preten-
sions.^' On December 5th, he adds, '' the Emperor of Russia
visited the Emperor of Austria immediately he was recovered,
and seemed more conciliatory with regard to Poland.^' Again,
on the 7th, '' the Emperor of Russia has recovered, and as usual
in the ball-room /'f having accompanied the Empress to a dance
at Sir C. Stewart's. The Congress was again adjourned, as
the Powers apparently hoped to weary out each other, but all
the Russians, including the Sovereigns and Constantine, were
particularly civil to the English. Hardenberg, having been
compelled to submit to Alexander, revenged himself by abusing
him violently behind his back, calling him a perfidious usurping
chara42ter, infinitely more dangerous than Bonaparte.

On December 1 7th Castlereaght sends an account of an ex-
plosion between Austria and Prussia, which produced a very
animated discussion. The Prussians were so much exas«
perated by Metternich refusing Saxony to them, that Harden-

* Munster's Political Sketches. t Wellington Gonespondenoe.

X Wellington Correspondence.

1 50 Tke CongresH of Vienna.

berg'i' sent to Alexander parts of the confidential correspon-
dence on Poland between himself and Mettemich^ showing
their liaison against Bnssia to prove to him that Austria now
broke faith with Prussia upon the point of Saxony, because
Prussia refused to declare war with Russia. Alexander at
once went to Francis and reproached him with desiring war.
Francis replied, if his minister wrote such a letter, it was
without his knowledge, and he must be called on to explain.
Mettemich, to justify himself, showed Alexander one of
Hardenberg's letters, where, to escape an opposition to Russia
in which he found himself disavowed, he pointed out that the
Czar must be ruined by his own politics ; in a few years his
military power would become comparatively feeble, then the
Allies might seize the occasion of doing themselves justice.
^' The whole made for two days a great sensation, but the result
may prove what I have before alleged, that the climate of
Russia is often the more serene after a good squall.^' Metter-
nich's interview with Alexander *' was not the less stormy from
a little private note of the first, most unaccountably or most
ungenerously among the papers sent, denying in terms not
very measured a conversation between them, as reported by
Alexander. The audience terminated by his Imperial
Majesty saying he should give his answer to the Emperor
in person. The interview took place the following morning,
and according to report was marked by peculiar conciliation
on the part of Alexander — a wish to settle all difierences —
regret that he could not meet the Emperor of Austria's
wishes about Cracow, which the Poles could not bear to
alienate as the tomb of their kings, and that in lieu thereof, as
a proof of his regard, he would cede the circle of Tamopol
which he received from Austria. This district contains a
population of not less than 400,000 subjects, and although
the cession will not serve Austria in point of frt)ntier, it is
the most substantial proof of a disposition to treat k Faimable
which his Imperial Majesty has yet shown. The Emperor
expressed his hope that Prussia would also accommodate, and
that all might be arranged. I cannot but infer that this dis-
closure has produced rather a salutary impression on the

* It is Bupposed Hardenberg was stimolated by one who wished for his
post

The Congress of Vienna. 151

Emperor's mind In this correspondence the Emperor

clearly perceives that I had not been mistaken in representing
to him the real feeling of his allies^ and I have no doubt
they made their impression even after the concert had
failed/'*

Other versions of the same affair assert that^ in Alexander's
first warmth at seeing himself accused of telling a falsehood, he
sent Mettemich a formal challenge by an influential person,
who carried it to the Archduke Charles, entreating him to
prevent it being delivered. Francis asked for an interview
with the Grand Duchess Catherine, which she refused till
ordered by her brother to see him. The Austrian princes re-
presented the unequal rank of the two parties rendered such
a meeting incompatible with the Emperor's dignity, and he
ought to appoint an aide-de-camp to take his place. If the
Czar shot Mettemich, no blame would attach to him ; while, if
it was the other way, there would be a war. And after two
days' negotiation the Czar consented to a personal explana-
tion with Mettemich, who extricated himself by saying the
Emperor's deafness caused him to mistake what was said in a
conversation. Alexander accepted the excuse, but it was not
considered a satisfactory one by even Mettemich's supporters.
Lord Liverpool wrote to Wellington : '^ Austria has a minister
in whom no one can trust, who considers all policy as con-
sisting in finesse and trick, and who has got his Oovemment
into more difficulties by his devices than could have occurred
from a plain course of dealing."

^' I have not the alarms," writes Lord Liverpool to Lord
Bathurst, December 15th, '' about Alexander which you en-
tertain. He is forming a sea of troubles for himself, and this
question of Poland cannot now be decided in any manner
without his making either the Poles or the Russians his
enemies." Cooke writes, that the Russians cannot brook the
idea of separating the Polish provinces acquired by Catherine ;
he believes the Polish leaders to be false to the Czar, and it
was supposed he could only erect the Duchy of Warsaw into
a kingdom. He had never mentioned the correspondence
between himself and Castlereagh to Nesselrode, whom Met-
temich informed of it, declaring that he would rather see
* Wellington Supplomentaxy Despatches, Ac., voL ix.

152 I^e Caress of Vienna.

Cracow belong to Russia than form an independent Republic,
much as he condemned the first alternative. But in the end
Alexander obtained the cession of the Duchy to Russia, and
the separation of Cracow from Austria^ with a radius of 450
square miles and a population of about 142,000, which was
erected into a Republic imder an independent government.'^
The province of Posen, containing the important town of
Thorn and about 500,000 inhabitants, was to be restored to
Prussia if she would moderate her demands on Saxony, and
leave Dresden and Leipsic with an area of 6777 square miles
to the dethroned King. This concession, which Mettemich,
Talleyrand, and Castlereagh could not obtain from Alexander,
was yielded at the personal solicitation of the uuhappy
Frederick Augustus, who pleaded that it was only fear which
induced him to join Napoleon. As far as territory went, the
exchange was more than an equivalent to Prussia, and while
it quieted her fears on the side of Russia, it appeased Austria,
by placing a neutral territory between the two German Em-
pires ; as the possession of Saxony as well as Silesia would
have given Prussia the command of Bohemia, containing only
insignificant fortresses. Alexander hoped that reducing the
causes of alarm would increase the probability of a prolonged
continental peace ; but the Prussian party, led by Steinf at
Vienna, were much excited, threatening immediate war, and
it was only through Alexander's representations, and on the
news of a peace between England and America, that it was aban-
doned ; for the British minister said his. country had made
peace with the United States to place her armies at the dis-
posal of Europe.

Castlereagh wrote from Vienna, November 11th, to Mr.
Vansittart, that he will " not call on the Dutch for the re-
mainder of the loan they owe to Russia if the Emperor persists
in his demands, as he would rather give the Prince of Orange
something more to fortify the Low Countries than assist the
credit of a Calmuck Prince to overturn Europe.^' He recom-
mended an armed mediation on the part of Great Britain,
France, Austria, Bavaria, the Netherlands, and Hanover.

^ It was annexed to Austria in 1846.
t Stein was only permitted to come to Vienna by the Czar, not by his
own King.

The Congress of Vienna. 153

CEartoriski told Lord Castlereagh^ and Priuce Radzivil the
Duke of Wellington, that the Emperor would be unable to carry
out his views as to Poland, on account of the Russian nobility ;
but before the Congress met again Castlereagh had returned
to England to assist at the opening of Parliament, and the
Duke left France (with whom he counselled a strict alliance)
for Vienna to take his place. Alexander went to Gratz on
December 20th, and then to Venice for a day or two, but he
returned to Vienna on the morning of his birthday, when
Francis gave a concert in his honour, and he appeared in Austrian
uniform. He displeased the British representative by arrang-
ing the question of Poland entirely between himself, Austria,
and Prussia, and when a memorial was presented to him by
the Austrian Cabinet requiring a guarantee if it acquiesced in
his wishes, he wrote at the top of the document that his
word sufficed. He said he wished to form a strict alliance
between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, so that not a cannon
should in future be fired without the permission of the three
Powers ; but while not venturing to dissent from this pro-
posal, Austria formed a secret treaty of alliance with France,
England, Spain, and Bavaria against Russia and Prussia; and
Stein^ asserts that Francis, flushed with pride at having at
last formed a member of a successful alliance, was anxious for
another war ; but this time it would have been in the hope of
pushing back his late ally of Russia, and to establish the
Austrian supremacy in Moldavia and Wallachia, so as to
secure a firm footing at the mouth of the Danube.

Constantine left Warsaw, December 9th, to take command
of the army in Poland. During the entire campaign of
1813-14, when he was seldom separated firom his brother,
his conduct was irreproachable, brave in the field, obedient to
orders, and, if not admired by his officers, still popular among
his men. " The worship of his brother,^' which the Prince
de Ligne said at Vienna, '' seemed to be his only fixed prin-

* Greneral Knesebeck (whose mission to Russia was mentioned in 1812)
addressed a memoir to Stein, September 28th, 1814, setting strongly
before him the danger of Russia crossing the Vistula. " It would render
life itseU' worthless," he said. '* There is no security for Prussia when a
large portion of the Russian territory protrudes into her own ; none for
Austna as soon as Russia crosses the Vistula. He goes so far as to lav
before Stein a plan for an alliance with England, Austria, Persia, and
Turkey in case of a war ¥rith Russia,"

1 54 Tlic Congress of Vienna.

ciple/' was thought by some not to be without design, as he
now aspired to the Viceroyalty of Poland. However, Alexan-
der determined to confer this on a native Pole. Constantino
arrived at Warsaw about the middle of the month, and pre-
sided at a solemn meeting of the Senate on the 24th. He
caused the new constitution to be read, and issued a procla-
mation to the Poles, followed in January by the formal
nomination of Alexander as King of Poland. " Unite your-
selves round your flag,'' he said ; " draw your swords to defend
your country, and to maintain its political existence. While
the Emperor Alexander prepares its happy future, show your-
selves ready to sustain his efforts. The chiefs who for twenty
years have conducted you on the field of glory, will enable
the Emperor to appreciate your valour. In the midst of the
disasters of a fatal war, he has seen your honour survive events
which did not depend on you. Great feats of arms have dis-
tinguished you in a struggle of which the object was often
foreign to you; now that your efforts will be consecrated to your
country you will be invincible. Soldiers and warriors of all
ranks and battalions, be the first to give an example of the
order which ought to exist among all your countrymen.
Loyalty to the Emperor, who only desires your welfare, obedi-
ence, concord, these are the means of assuring the prosperity
of your country, which finds itself under the powerful segis of
the Emperor. You will thus arrive at the happy position
which others may promise you, but which he alone can give
you,'' &c.

This proclamation was regarded by the Congress as a
threat; but the representatives of England misjudged their
ally, as was afterwards proved, when they gave him credit for
vindictiveness, and supposed he would now turn against her at
the earliest opportunity. He was naturally unwilling to sacri-
fice the vital interests of Russia merely to please an English
Cabinet, whose measures might be altered by a change of
ministry as soon as Parliament met. He had sufficiently set
aside his personal advantage for that of Europe, and he felt
it was now time to consider his own empire. A naive remark
of the Emperor Francis showed how little Austria could
ever be depended upon as an ally if an enemy offered a
higher price for her friendship. He asked Alexander if he

I%e Congress of Vienna. 155

woald not have willingly granted all the points under discus-
sion if they had been demanded when he was canvassing
for the adhesion of Austria in 1813 ; to which the Czar an-
swered^ he could not say that he might not have done so^ but
that circumstances had considerably changed. Now^ in
consequence of a dispute with Talleyrand^ the Aastrian
Cabinet encouraged Murat^ and to Louis's annoyance per-
mitted him to buy 25^000 muskets in Austria^ and occupy
the Italian frontier with his army. " While every morning
we are expecting the Emperor," De Maistre writes from St.
Petersburg, February 2nd, 1816, " we receive the news that he
may not come for months, as his presence will be necessary
for some time to avoid a war.''

The fStes continued through the autumn at Vienna. Alex-
ander held a series of entertainments, chiefly tableaux vivauts,
and a large military fStc at Prince Bagration's country seat,
while two of the Russian nobility gave balls in honour of the
Empress Elizabeth.* When Beauhamais arrived at the Con-
gress, a difficulty was raised as to what rank he should take,
till Alexander said he ought to have the same precedence as any
other son-in*law of a King. He was the only good pedestrian,
except Alexander, among all the princely guests at Vienna ;
and as soon as the last was sufficiently recovered from his ill-
ness, he used to call at Eugene's house every morning, and
they took a long walk together. ^^ Alexander," writes Omp-
teda, '' was adored by those who enjoyed the honour of his
intimacy, and the simplicity of his manners with his easy polite-
ness and gallantry won all hearts at Vienna.^' He intro-
duced an Austrian officer walking with Ompteda to Eugene,
as the youngest knight of St. George. Hearing the name of
my companion, Lucchesini, he asked if his father was a plenipo-
tentiary to the Congress of Listow in the reign of Frederick II.
" He was. Sire." " And where is he now ?" " Living on his
estate near Lucca." " If," said Alexander, " he amuses himself

* " The Emperor Alexander's departure will be regretted more than
that of any of the royal visitors/' writes a Vienna correspondent to Sir
G^rse Jackson, " for he is.very popular and altogether the chief star of
that orilliant throng. He seems to find far more enjoyment in a sans
f<ifon mode of life than in the ceremonious life of the Court. He and
Prince Eugene are extremely intimate. . . . Sometimes they go over to
Schonbninn together, and breakfast alone with Maria Louisa, who is said
to be vexy little saddened by recent events."

156 Uie Congress of Vienna.

by retracing the recollections of his past life^ they must be
deeply interesting^ for few men have seen so much/' Ompteda
again met the Emperor^ '^ in his usual neat morning dress/' ac-
companied by Ouvarof and his shadow, Eugene, in the picture
gallery belonging to Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, the Austriaa
Emperor's uncle^ and heard his remarks on the various battle-
fields, portrayed in a most complete collection of maps and
plans. He passed alternately from the campaigns of Italy to
those of Germany, avoiding any allusion to that of Russia.
"After all/' he said to Eugene, "here are glorious scenes,
reviving recollections which ought to please you." " Ah,
Sire/' replied Eugene, " you see how this glory has ended.
We labour to obtain it, and then it is envied, attacked,
doubted, and at length forgotten." " It is not so with
regard to yours and that of your family. Prince, which already
belongs to history." " And it is an inheritance. Sire," said
Eugene, " to which no one can have more indisputable rights
than your Majesty. The conqueror overthrows and destroys,
but the statesman raises and founds national prosperity on solid
bases." This dialogue, writes Ompteda, " reminded me of
Peter the Great entertaining the Swedish generals after the
battle of Pultowa, and drinking the health of his masters in
the art of war."

All the Sovereigns in Vienna paid a visit to the catacombs
and Imperial tombs in the church of the Capucines. Con-
stantine went several times. Alexander was also conducted
over the various points of military interest around Vienna, and
to the battle-field of Wagram by the Archduke Charles, where,
he observed, that nothing in Napoleon's character was so ex-
traordinary as his ability to sleep at any moment when he
required it, even though he might be leaving his army in the
greatest danger, as was displayed particularly at Bautzen, and
after the lost battle of Laon in France.

Ompteda had a conversation with Czartoriski's friend and
relative, Novossilzof, on the subject of Poland, which shows
no attempt was made to deceive her with the idea that the
partial independence was to lead to complete self-government.
" The Poles," said he, " are ever carrying back their thoughts
to the brilliant times of their history, and they want their
country to reassume that proud attitude of independence it

The Congress of Vienna. 157

enjoyed ander the Sobieskis^ without thinking of the immense
changes the political condition of Europe has since then under-
gone^ and their peculiar geographical position^ which makes it
impossible they should stand again on the same footing. If
we allowed her to become completely independent she would *
make an Asiatic nation of us^ and we are not disposed to re-,
cede. If you read this MS.^ with the margin full of notesj
written in Alexander's own hand^ you will find how we wish I
to satisfy the Polish nation. This is the constitution intended^
for them. Their institutions^ hereby fixed upon a solid founda-
tion, will become the means by which the peace of Europe \
may be ever maintained.''

The Count Zavadovski^ who was not twenty-three, lost two
millions of roubles in one night at play. Ompteda went to his
opponent^ but could obtain no redress^ though he pointed out
he ran great risk if the afiair should reach the ears of the
Emperor, whose aversion to gambling was well known. Alex-
ander did hear of it, and withdrew his favour from the winner,
who subseqently asserted in Paris that he would rather have
lost half his fortune. Some time later the son of a wealthy
Russian prince lost a large sum of money at play to one of his
brother officers. His father complained to the Emperor that
his son had been pillaged. After making inquiries, Alexander
said, ^' Pay the money, which you can do with ease ; your son
is old enough to take care of himself, and no one obliged him
to play. He must therefore take the consequences.''

The death of the Prince de Ligne cast a shadow over the
festivities at Vienna, as his illness was not at first supposed to
be serious. The circumstances were a shock to his associates.
He fancied he saw death enter his room in the shape of a
ghastly spectre, and in a tone of the greatest agitation ex-
claimed, '' Close the door ; see, he is coming in \ turn him out I"
and called for assistance. He became convulsed, and sank
into a state of unconsciousness. Prince Eugene and Ouvarof
were among the mourners, and Alexander and the King of
Prussia watched the funeral procession from that part of the
ramparts formerly razed by the French.

To please the French Legitimists and get up a novel excite-
ment, Talleyrand proposed aiuueral service for Louis XVl. on
the anniversary of the day of his execution, when the ceremony

158 TIte Congress of Vienna.

of tranferring his ashes to St. Denis was to take place. All
consented except Alexander^ who^ without actually opposing it,
Baid no one could doubt of the sentiments that Europe bore
to the unfortunate Louis XYI.^ but a public service would be
a party spectacle, very impolitic in Paris, and merely an
awkward imitation in Vienna ; nevertheless, if they persisted
in it, he should attend the service, as the French Legation
only could judge of what was agreeable to its Government.
The Sovereigns resorted to St. Stephen's Cathedral in deep
mourning, and French priests read the funeral oration, during
which Talleyrand weptl a week later they heard of the scoffs
which greeted the ceremony in Paris, and the incident of the
crown rolling off the top of the bier.

While the subjects of Saxony and Poland were agitated, a
variety of minor interests were also discussed. Sir Sydney
Smith came to advocate the cause of the ex-King of Sweden,
and Bemadotte claimed Swedish Pomerania in addition to
Norway ; Ragusa, Genoa ; Venice and all the other Republics
their independence ; the Queen of Etruria, Tuscany ; France
and Spain, Parma ; the Pope, Ferrara ; Baden, Hanover, and
Saxe-Coburg an increase of territory ; and all the Italian
principalities required Elba.

Wellington writes from Vienna, February 25th, that Alex-
ander ^' is certainly embarrassed by his situation with the Poles,
and is excessively anxious the assembled Powers should concur
in immediately urging the Gt)vemment of the Porte to act
with more moderation towards the Servians, which, contrary
to the stipulations of the treaty of Bucharest, his Majesty
alleges is treating that people with great severity. I have
urged Count Razoumovski, who spoke to me upon this subject,
to delay the mention of it to the other Powers till the period
at which the Powers should guarantee the dominions of the
Porte.'' The secret alliance had already been signed on
February 8rd, 1815, between Great Britain, Hanover, Spain,
France, and Austria, and was soon joined by W^iirtemberg,
Bavaria, and Holland. It was concealed at Vienna, though
Hardenberg discovered it, and informed his King, who dared
not tell Alexander. Stein suspected it, and imparted his ideas
to the Czar, who would not believe Francis could be so
treacherous towards a guest. On the arrival of Wellington,

Tlie CongresB of Vienna. 159

Hardenberg again raised the question of Napoleon^s removal,
and proposed St. Helena^ and it is said the Duke broaght in-
structions from hi« Government to accede to it. Alexander
still refused to break his word, but as he was to leave for
Russia on March 13th, the rest meant to revive the measure
as soon as he was gone. Napoleon anticipated them in a
breach of the treaty, and secretly left Elba, February 26th,
for the coast of France.

The history of France during eighty years shows there is no
country in Europe, perhaps in the world, where an adminis-
tration can be more easily overturned by a well-organized
conspiracy. The mass of the people are too much absorbed
in private interests to care for any particular dynasty if it
leaves them in peace, and France therefore has been ruled
by an ambitious minority. Napoleon's family were practised
revolutionists, and their experience in 1792 had taught them
the art of working on the people, and fomenting any germ of
popular discontent. The army was as great an embarrass-
ment to Louis as to Louis Philippe and Napoleon III.* The
last conscription under Napoleon had brought thousands
from their homes, who, after being initiated into military
licence and pillage, were left to wander about the country or
return to their villages without work, and longing for another
revolution to enable them to seize on the property of the rich.
There was nothing Alexander had not done to strengthen
Louis, or to keep out of view of the people that he had been
in reality imposed upon them by their enemies. Their monu*
ments and museums were left intact, and their only burdens a
portion of the same taxes they had paid for years under
Napoleon; while now the gates of France were opened,
strangers flocked into the country spending money, and she
was enabled to carry on an unrestricted commerce. But
Louis, Talleyrand, and Blacas spoiled all by their bad policy
and want of foresight. The pensions settled on Napoleon'a

* "The Cossack pike, which represented the oonstitntioii," writes
Wilson daring a jonmej through France in the previous August, " and
the bayonet of Bussia raising tne throne of Louis, are images which will
sooner or later fret the people to madness. . . . Enmity to the Allies^
wounded cmumr propre, the view of desolation, and the want of employ-
ment, seem the chief moving causes of discontent." This was kept alive
by the busy agents of the Bonapartists, hired to sow the seeds of, revo-
lution in all parts of France."

160 Tlie Congress of Vienna.

family were intended as not only a provision^ but a means of
attaching them to the Bourbon Governmeat. But these
pensions were withheld till the end of the first year of the
new reign; and when^ contrary to Alexander's advice^ the
Dttchesse de St. Leu obtruded herself on the French Courts
she was received with such contempt that she never appeared
there again ; and^ afker making her house in Paris a centre
for the meeting of the Bonapartists^ she joined her brother at
Baden to carry on the same intrigues. Ney and the military
chiefs who for years in foreign countries held the power of
life and death over those beneath them^ now found themselves
reduced to comparative insignificance^ and their rough exterior
and unpolished manners unfitted them for the Court. They
had little in common with the King, who was a literary wit^
and liked to surround himself with clever men; and they
sighed in idleness while thousands of subalterns were on half-
pay^ a system hitherto unknown in France. Although M. de
Blacas had for years been a pensioner of Russia, his only idea
of satisfying the military was to declare war against the Czar.
Napoleon^s two campaigns in 1807 and 1812 were accom-
panied with as much disaster to the French as to the enemy ;
therefore a really successful war with Russia would exalt the
military prestige of the Bourbons above that of the Bona-
partists. Austria and Prussia, on the contrary^ were thoroughly
beaten by the French^ so there was nothing further to gain
by attacking them. For the sake of recovering her position
as a first-rate Power, and enforcing her opinions at the Con-
gress, the armies of Napoleon, which burrendered so unwillingly
to the AJIies, were kept up just as before, as if they were
inanimate bodies with no opinions or recollections of previous
rewards. The reaction of feeling which always occurs more
or less after a public event soon took place, and, in pity
for Napoleou^s fate, they forgot the ruin he had brought on
France. The returned prisoners were incorporated in the
ranks, convinced that they were joining them for the sake of
restoring him when the proper time should come; and as
there was an open communication between Elba and France,
his income was lavished on purchasiug adherents., and not-
withstanding the large sums he carried away with him, he
was already embarrassed. Half of his Guard was sent to

The Congress of Vienna. 161

France ostensibly on furlough, bat really to gather partisans ;
and yet, while clamouring at Vienna for his removal from
Elba, the French Government took no precautions against the
danger they feared. The army, ready to receive him,
was marched towards the coast, while the ministers stated
their intention to get rid of the treaty ; and Louis made no
secret of Talleyrand^s correspondence, carried on in a series of
gossiping letters to the King, all showing disunion among
the Allies. The Prince of Baden was not admitted to the
meetings at the Congress, but gained information &om his
sister, the Empress of Russia, and transmitted it to his wife
and mother at Baden, while Hortense was there. The King
of Bavaria was admitted to the meetings, and was a member
of the secret alliance, and through him Beauharnais heard of the
desire of that alliance to remove Napoleon and oppose Russia,
and he told it to his sister^ who corresponded with Napoleon.
There was consequently no need of treacherous agents, which he
nevertheless possessed, to make the deposed Emperor thoroughly
acquainted with the whole state of affairs. The disunion was
very evident from the Congress being so much prolonged, and
he believed his reappearance would be hailed by one party or
the other as a support. He was not a prisoner in Elba. It
was his independent territory. When matters were more
settled he would have been free to visit the Continent like
any other sovereign : he was kept in the island by his word of
honour, and nothing more. He embarked in his largest vessel
with 400 gaards, giving out that he was going to attack the
pirates on the coast of Barbary^ but landed instead on the
coast of Provence.

A part of the garrison of Grenoble was under the command
of Colonel Labedoyfere, who had engaged before Napoleon left
Elba to join him directly he heard of his arrival. The plan
succeeded. The civil governors, when faithful to the King,
could make no stand against the military; and Napoleon
entered his late empire with far less risk to himself than the
Comte d^Artois and the Due de Bern when, before his abdica-
tion, they returned to France. He always loved a theatrical
scene, and he knew on this occasion it would be repeated and
have effect in all parts of France. He therefore acted one
before the troops, otherwise unnecessary, as they were already

VOL. uu M

J 62 TAe Congress of Vienna.

■

secured. Key was appointed by Louis to the command of a
fresh army collected at Lons-le-Saulnier^ to stop the progress
of the Bonapartists. He told the King when he took his
leave that he would bring back Napoleon in an iron cage^'*^
and this exaggerated expression alone might have excited
doubts of his fidelity. He afterwards stated he was faithful
to the King when he actually left Paris down to March 13th,
when Napoleon^s proclamation was put into his hands ; but
though he may up to that moment have committed no oveil;
act of treachery, he left the capital, it was proved, with the
full intention of returning to his old master, having made
various preparations, and carried with him an eagle and the
marshal's uniform he wore under the Empire. Ch&teaubriand
proposed to defend Paris instead of abandoning it to the
insurgents. '^ Let us,'' he said, '^ line the quays and terraces
of the palace with cannon. Let Bonaparte attack us if he
dare in that position ; let him bombard Paris if he chooses ;
the King defending himself in his palace will awaken universal
enthusiasm. If he must die, let the last exploit of Napoleon
be the murder of an old man." But, as usual, the National
Guard took the side it believed to be the strongest, and a
courijer from La Valette, the post director, who was throughout
Napoleon's secret emissary, informed the ex-Emperor at
Fontainebleau that the King left Paris on the evening of the
19th, and the citizens awaited his entrance. However, he did
not venture there till it was dark, lest he should be badly
received ; and the next morning tried to form a ministry. He
resorted to the turncoat Fouche for the Police, and Caulain-
court only accepted the office of Foreign AflEairs from compul*
sion, not wishing to parade his treachery in the face of Europe.
Others hung back in the same way. In vain Napoleon,
having perceived the good effect Alexander produced by his
conciliatory measures, now tried the same plan. He granted
pensions to the invalid Duchesses of Orleans and Bourbon ;
he promised to continue the constitution. ^^ It is not so easy to
govern with one as some suppose," he said ; '^ give me your
ideas, public discussions, free elections, responsible ministers,
the liberty of the press, — I have no objection to them. I am
t^e man of the people ; if they really wish for liberty I will
. * This expression has been denied, but Ney owned to it on his trial

7%e Confess of Vienna. 163

give it them. I am no longer a conqueror, I cannot be so.
I hare now but one mission^ that of restoring France/'

The GoYernment of Louis left the finances in admirable
condition^ and the army was newly equipped and mounted^
and as Talleyrand boasted^ in most excellent order for sus-
taining a war. But Napoleon hoped for an ally in either
England or Russia. On April 1st he addressed a circular
note to each of the foreign Governments. " Sire, my brother/'
he began, '^ the true nature of the late events must now be
known to you. They were the work of the unanimous wish
of a great nation/' &c. He pleaded the uusuitableness of the
Bourbons, the love of the French for himself, his desire to
repay so much affection. It was time nations exhibited no
other rivalry but the advantages of peace, no other strife but
that of their welfare. As these letters met with no reply, for
the couriers who took them were all stopped on the frontiers,
he made England the offer of taking the whole burden of her
national debt upon himself; but, like a fraudulent bankrupt
who borrows at 20 per cent., such proposals only showed the
trembling ground on which he stood. His ministers even
assumed a dictatorial manner towards him ; but he still hoped
for at least the neutrality of Russia, as Louis left a copy of the
secret treaty on a table at the Tuileries. Napoleon charged
Caulaincourt to transmit it to Alexander through the Russian
charge d'affaires, M. Budiakine, who was still in Paris. He
accompanied it with an autograph note, in which he said he
need make no further comment on the contents. At the
same time he wrote to Maria Louisa by Baron Vincent, the
Austrian ambassador, requesting her to acquaint her father
with his sincere desire for peace.

Budiakine received the copy of the treaty with diplomatic
coolness, but Caulaincourt thought he was inwardly enraged.
He promised to make known to Alexander Napoleon's sincere
wish to maintain peace with him, and to become again his
friend. When the Allies once more entered Paris, Caulain-
court heard from Alexander himself that Budiakine had
carried the message faithfully. " I was only half surprised at
the treaty," he said ; " between my brother of Prance and me
there was not much sympathy." Yet it gave him a feeling of
insecurity in the peace he had sacrificed so .many personal

m2

I

164 The Congress of Vienna.

advantages to obtain for Europe. The hopes Castlereagh and
Hardenberg expressed of some future weak reign, or a minority,
enabling the Allies to revenge themselves on Russia, rankled
in his mind, and perhaps accounted for his refusal to reduce
his enormous army, which has since been maintained in the
same strength by his successors.

Napoleon intercepted a letter addressed to La Yalette from
Vienna, enlightening him considerably as to the sentiments of
Maria Louisa. Far from being anxious to favour his in*
terests, she openly expressed her hatred of him, supporting all
measures against him, and opposing any likely to end in their
living together again."^ The writer intimated that she had
formed an extraordinary attachment in another quarter (pro-
bably to Count Neipperg, her chamberlain, whom she after-
wards married), and La Yalette says Napoleon believed it was
true. Certainly no pressure on the part of her family pre-
vented her from sharing her husband^s exile. Like her father,
she appeared unable to live single, for on the death of Count
Neipperg, her second husband, and at the age of forty-eight,
she married M. de Bombelles. The Duchesse de St. Leu
hastened to Paris, and appeared at the Tuileries the night
Napoleon arrived, to preside over his Court in place of his
wife. He said he did not expect to find her there. " I
remained in France/' she replied, "to take care of my
mother.'^ " But after her death ?'' he said. " I found in Alex-
ander a protector for my children, and I tried to secure their
prospects/' He desired her to write to Eugene, and tell him
he counted on his support. She accordingly wrote, entreating
her brother to appeal to the Czar's peaceful sentiments, and
induce him to prevent war; but a principality in Bavaria was
secured to Eugene through Alexande^-'s interest, and though
he transmitted his sister's message, he abstained from returning
to France.

The news of Napoleon's departure from Elba reached Vienna
through two difierent sources on March 5th, and Alexander
was at once attacked by his allies for having refused to
permit his removal, and for the treaty of April 11th. He

* The day she heard of Napoleon's death she appeared in pnblic, as if
to show that the daughter of the CaBsars could only feel contempt for an
ex-Bub-Ueatenant.

\

7%e Congress of Vienna. 165

alone had received the intelligence with perfect coolness,*
and three hours afterwards sent a messenger to his generals in
Poland, to stop the homeward march of his troops. But it
was neither against Napoleon personally, nor for the restoration
of the Bourbons, that he said he should declare war. Napoleon
had broken his pledged word ; he was freed from any ties with
regard to the treaty he had formed with him, and should con-
clude no truce with France so long as she adhered to him ;
but as for the Bourbons, they had prepared the ground for
the return of the Bonapartes by their own measures. He
could not employ the time of his reign and the forces of his
empire on their behalf. The country must be placed in such
a position that the revolts of her Prsetorian Guards could no
longer agitate Europe ; but for a house which neither knew
how to fight nor how to reign, he would draw his sword no
more.

" You see. Sire,'' cried Francis, " what has occurred in
consequence of your protection of the Liberals and the Bona-
partists.'' Alexander meekly accepted the responsibility his
colleagues cast upon him, and promised to assist in repairing
his fault. But he asked if it would not be wise to substitute
the Duke of Orleans for Louis, who, in quitting France
without appointing a successor, had left the nation or his
allies free to choose one more capable of keeping his place.
The very age and infirmities of Louis would have protected
him if he had remained in Paris, for even Napoleon could not
have put him to death, and the spectacle of their old King
willing to risk the loss of his few remaining years of life
at the head of his troops, rather than take an ignoble flight,
might have restored loyalty to his cause. Alexander had

* ** Many fanciful acconnts have been given of the reception of the first
news of Napoleon's flight at Vienna. Among others Scott says that the
announcement was made to the Congress on the 11th by Tallevrand, and
that general laughter was the first emotion. In the BecoUections of
Bogers we are told that Wellington said he first heard it from Lord
Barghersh, then minister at Florence, and that the instant it came he
communicated it to the members of the Congress, who all laughed, the
Emperor of Bussia the most of all. Sir W. Erie called the Duke's atten-
tion to this statement. He said, * Laugh ! no, we did not laugh. We
said, Where will he ffo P and Talleyrand said, * I cannot say where he will
go, but 1*11 undertake to say where he'll not go, and that is to France.'-
Kext day, when we met, the news had come that he had gone to France,
and we laughed at Tallejrand^that is the only laugh I can recollect."—
Hay ward's Essays.

166 The Confess of Vienna.

certainly a right to speak in this strain, for the Romanofs
have always been ready to face an insurrection^ not to fly
from before their own people. Lord Clancarty said he had no
power to decide on so grave a question^ and then Talleyrand
stood iip^ and knowing the jealousy of his allies towards
Alexander, skilfully procured their sympathy for Louis^ by
laying the blame entirely on the generous conqueror of
France. " The Allies/' he said, " completely tied the hands
bf the restored Government^ and the fault lay with them.
We are far from accusing that greatness of soul which treated
a conquered Power almost like a conqueror; but at least
we cannot accuse ourselves of the imprudent generosity we
admired but could not prevent, though we have now become
the victims of it.'' The Austrian^ English, and Prussian
ministers secretly enjoyed this aspersion on Alexander.^
" See Poland/' continued Talleyrand ; " where the spirit of
independence ever nourishes revolutions. The revolutionary
spirit only is formidable in France; but to repress it you
must repress the spirit of independence."t Alexander after-
wards told Talleyrand he believed Napoleon would not have
left Elba if the payments had been made as stipidated.
Talleyrand asked if he would pay in March what was not due
till May. Alexander's reply to Eugene, and to another
urgent letter from Hortense, was '^ No peace, not even a truce,
with Napoleon ;" and Wellington expressed himself very well
satisfied with the Emperor, both on this point and on that of
his prompt co-operation in the new campaign. All the Powers
began to feel some uneasiness lest the secret treaty should
be divulged, and cause him to break oS from their alliance.
Castlereagh wrote to the Duke from London,]; March 27th^
that in their hurried departure the French King's ministers
might not have carried off the contents of the Foreign Office^
and " our secret treaty with France and Austria, as well as
all Prince Talleyrand's correspondence, will fall into Bona-
parte's hands. He will of course try to turn this to account^
first in private, by sowing discord, and if he fails in this, he
will expose the whole in the Maniteur. I leave it to your
judgment to take such steps as you deem most suitable for

* Lamartine's Histoire de la Eet tanration. f Ch&teaubiiand.

X WeUington Despatches,

TAe CongresB of Vienna. 167

counteraeting any unfavourable impression. After all he
knew long since^ it cannot produce any unfavourable impres*
sion upon the Emperor of Russians mind. He must feel the
whole grew out of differences now settled^ and a most indis-
creet declaration of Prince Hardenberg's. The treaty is,
upon the face of it^ purely defensive, and all our proceedings
since have proved this beyond a doubt.''

Lord Cathcart writes from Vienna, March 25th, that
Alexander's field equipage and horses are ordered from
Warsaw, to join the head-quarters of the Russian army at
Prague on April I4th; and that he is to be attached to the
Emperor's head-quarters as before. On March 30th he
attended a meeting at Schwartzenberg's house in Vienna^ where
Alexander, the Prince of Wiirtemberg, and the generals met
to decide on the military movements. "The Emperor of
Russia," writes Wellington, ''is quite reconciled to the old
notion of managing the concern in council between him, the
King of Prussia, and Schwartzenberg." The Allies were to crosfif
the Rhine once more, the English and Prussians through Bel*
gium, the Austrians and Russians by Mayence ; and nothing
could be more conciliatory and more apologetic than the Powers
who had formed the secret treaty now became to Russia. Alex-
ander's advice in the councils of the Congress was no longer
opposed. Bavaria was forced to waive her claim on Baden,
and the reconstitution of the German Federal Union, with the
boundaries of the smaller States, was arranged according to
his views on a strict principle of justice and mutual advan-
tages, combined with the recognized wishes of the people.

Alexander received the communication from Budiakine, who
was detained in Paris, April 8th, and he opened it in Stein's
presence. He turned exceedingly red as he perused the con-
tents, and the Baron said he fully expected a storm. He sent
for Mettemich, and showed it to him. This diplomatist for
once could make no reply, but recovering himself eagerly
began upon some other business.^ Alexander informed him
he desired never to hear anything mare of it again, and put
the document upon the fire. Under the circumstances the
alliance ought to be firmer than ever. '^ H ne s'agit pas de
moi, mais du salut du monde." Talleyrand, with cool effrontery^

* Memoirs of SteiiL

168 j[%e Congress of Vienna.

■ —

first denied it to Nesselrode^ and then said lie was about to
abandon it — " the villain/' writes Stein, To his brother-in-
law of Bavaria, Alexander said mach what he had said to
Mettemich, and when the King excused himself, added, '^ I
see you were drawn in ; I will think no more of it/' Still for
some days there was great fear expressed by the other Powers
lest Russia should eventually remain neutral, and Hardenberg
advised the members of the Congress to yield everything to
Alexander, and to look for a limitation of the Russian power
at a future day. In the middle of April he was tacitly allowed
the title of King of Poland, and the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar,
Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin all assumed that of
Grand Duke. Alexander wrote to Frederick William, that the
political position of the world made a bond necessary between
the Grerman princes, but Hanover was averse to this bond, or
Zollverein, and it was not effected for many years.*

The Greek Lent put a stop to the festivities at Vienna, and
the Empress of Russia left in the middle of March for Baden.
Alexander remained till May 26th, the last point of dispute
being the succession of the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza
to the son of Maria Louisa. They were claimed by Spain,
and Lord Clancarty having taken the place of the Duke, re-

* " I had not till yesterday," writes Cathcart to Oastlereagh, May 19th,
1815, ** an opportunity to deliver your message, marked * Private,' to the
Emperor of Russia, who received every part of that communication in
the most satisfactory and fipracious manner. He desired me to say to you
everything most civil and kind. He added that he had always found you
frank and open, and had the highest opinion of you ; he had looked upon
your position here to be one oi ^reat delicacy and high responsibility,
aod any animosities which had arisen in the course of the negotiation to
have proceeded from misapprehension, the clashing of different interests,
too much heat, and causes of a like nature, which had not made much
impression upon him, as he had trusted they would cure themselves.
Speaking of the march of the army and the length of time it requires to
remove troops, even from the nearest provinces of the Russian Empire to
the centre of Grermany, he said he hoped the time was come when it
would be found that the power of Russia might be useful to the rest of
Europe, but not dangerous to it. ... I have not any ground for suppos-
ing that the Empt^ror of Russia has a wish to set up any particular
dynasty in opposition to the Bourbon, in the event of netting nd of that
01 Bonaparte, but I think that now, as in 1813, he doubts in his own
mind the probability of the restoration of the King. He has not spoken
to me of the Duke of Orleans, but has frequently expressed his determi-
nation not to interfere, except for the removal of Bonaparte, and that he
should not be succeeded by any of his generals or marshals, among whom
he did not fail to name the Grown Prince of Sweden. I never heard him
apeak of a regency/' &c. — Wellington Despatches.

7%e Congress of Vienna. 169

called to command the British troops^ stoutly declined to sign
the most trifling document till this was settled against the ex*
Empress. She appealed to Alexander^ the Austrian Cabinet
being also against her^ and he etfected a compromise by which
she kept Parma for life, after which it returned to a Bourbon
and not to a Bonaparte. Murat protested that he meant to
keep his treaty with Austria, but settled the diflSculty respect-
ing Naples by entering Rome and calling on all Italians to
rally round him and erect their country into a united State.
The Austrians in Lombardy marched out to meet him, his
troops fled, and he escaped in a fishing-boat to France ; but
Napoleon refused to see him in Paris, and at last hoping to
reinstate himself in Naples, where the Bourbons were re-esta-
blished, as Napoleon had reseated himself on the throne of
France, he landed with a few followers, but met with less mer-
ciful foes than his old master found in the Allies, and was
seized and shot in accordance with his own law, directing that
any person landing in the country without a passport, or with
^ intent to disturb the public tranquillity, should be executed.

Napoleon's partisans at Vienna made an attempt to carry off the
King of Rome, but when the plan was detected Francis dis-
missed his daughter's French attendants, and made her drop
her title of Empress.

While Napoleon employed every mode of conciliation to-
wards the foreign Powers, he placed Paris in a complete state
of defence, and lost no time in preparing the country for the
now inevitable campaign. With the system which formerly
succeeded in crushing Austria and Prussia, he resolved to
pounce on one of the allied armies before it was joined by its
colleagues.

Wellington had orders to avoid a battle till united with the
advancing Russians, and only three days before Waterloo wrote
to Alexander : '^ I see with the greatest satisfaction that we are
quite agreed on the general base of the plan of operations —
that is to say, to limit our extension by the necessity of
means of subsistence for armies so immense ; that the army of
Italy ought to co-operate with the others, but upon a different
basis ; and that the centre of the Grand Army of operation^
that which will extend from the sea as far as Switzerland^
ought to support either the right or the left^ according to cir-

170 Tlie CongreBB of Vienna,

cumstanoes. This centre will be composed of the whole of
your Majesty's troops ; the right of Marshal Blucher's army^
and of that under my orders ; the left of that under the imme-
diate orders of Prince Schwartzenberg. As to what concerns
us here^ I believe we shall be obliged at least to lay siege to

Maubeuge Blucher thinks that the position of Givet

will be of no utility to him^ but I believe we shall have means
sufficient for all that it will be necessary for us to do/'

i

CHAPTER IV. "

1815.
Alexander's second campaign in France.

ATAT. 37.

THE Evangelical movement in Germany and Switzerland
in 1810, in which Jung Stilling took a prominent part,
made rapid progress among those on the Continent reduced to
extreme misery during the long war. The charitable exertions
of the Moravians and other Christian communities were never
more welcome than in that period of calamity, nor more useful
to civilization itself, as they checked the brigandage and high-
way murder frequently prompted by despair. In the Vosges
mountains the good pastor Oberlin formed at Ban de la Roche
a city of refuge from the despoilers^ an oasis for those to
whom the world had been rendered a desert. Alexander sent
forward a guard of Cossacks to protect this village from ma*
rauders when the Allies entered France, and some time after-
wards the pastor sent his formal blessing to the autocrat.

Among those persons of distinction who gave up rank and
fortune to devote themselves to the cause of charity and religion,
was the Baroness de Krudener, who entertained Paul and his
wife at Mittau, and was presented at Catherine's Court, when
Alexander was six years old, on her husband's appointment to
the republic of Venice. Her portrait was painted by Ange*
lica Kaufimann, and she was acquainted with most of the
literary and political celebrities of the day. Her charms caused
the young Russian secretary to the embassy to commit suicide
in despair ; an event which had a lasting effect on her, and
forms the subject of one of her novels, for she was an au-
thoress of some repute till she adopted a religious life.''*^ Her

* Madame d'Oberkirch, writing in 1789, says : " The public attention
is entirely turned to the Baroness de Krudener, a young woman of brilliant
and exalted imagination, who undertakes to reform the present philo-
sophical belief according to the fantastic notions of Swedenborg and other

172 Alexanders Second Campaign in France,

husband and son^s posts at Berlin made her intimate with Queen
Louisa, whom she accompanied throughout the sad year of
1806-7. They visited the hospitals together, and she exerted
herself to console her royal friend. '' Ah, I have dwelt in
palaces,'' she said to a young girl who was an eager listener,
** and if you did but know what trouble and anguish they conceal !
I never see one without feeling a pang at my heart.'' Alex-
ander must have met her at that time, but since his accession
she had not revisited her native country. In 1808 she went
to Baden, where she became acquainted with the mother of
the Empress of Russia ; and as the Margravine often received
visits from her daughters, the Queens of Sweden and Bavaria,
the Electress of Hesse, and the Duchess of Brunswick, Madame
Krudener met them all at her table, and the same year was
introduced to Queen Hortense, who tried to persuade her to
settle in Paris. She refused on the ground that she had a
horror of Courts ; but they corresponded, and both Hortense
and Stephanie were able to serve her when the King of Wiir-
temberg made her the subject of an annoying surveillance in
his States.

Baron de Krudener died in June, 1802, and his widow
pi*eached celibacy and the superiority of a religious over a
domestic life. The room she inhabited was bare of furniture,
except a large woodien cross, and she lived as plainly and
strictly as a nun, exhorting both rich and poor, and attracting
large congregations. In 1814 the Empress Elizabeth came to
Baden, and Mdlle. Stourdza was much charmed with the
Baroness, whom she persuaded with some trouble to seek an
introduction to her mistress. In her coiTespondence with
Madame Svetchine, she is warned against her friend's tendency
to cast off dogma and draw her away from the discipline of
the Church* (the religion of the Pope and the Czar, as Madame

Utopian theorists. She explains her doctrines in her own drawing-room,
and gains many proseJytes. She is sincere and warm-hearted." "A
person hoth extraordinary and interesting," writes Madame de Genlis ;
"two things which when united are very onoommon, especially in a
woman. Sne was certainly most sincere ; she appeared to me amiable,
clever, original, and piquant, and inspired me wiui a genuine interest in
her."

* " Bememher how pure our faith is ; do not let yourself be indifferent
to doffma, which would be truly culpable. Think what would have become
of religion if the first faithful ones had not preciously preserved its
deposit."

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 173

Krudener rather contemptuously styled the Latin and Greek
Christianity). The enthusiastic Mdlle. Stourdza's warm admira-
tion for her Sovereign gave Madame Krudener, formerly pre-
judiced against him, a desire to see him. She also heard much
of him from Jung Stilling, with whom she stayed at Carls-
ruhe, and whom Alexander visited during his brief sojourn at
Bruchsal. She tried to make a religious impression upon the
Empress, after condemning her for harshness to Horteuse and
Stephanie, and counselling her to adopt *' the charity which
thinketh no evil.'' She was satisfied with the result, for she
wrote, Sept. 7th, 1814, " The Lord has deigned to conform the
soul of the Empress to my ardent wishes. I have had more
than one travail with this angelic woman, and at last seeing her
set out [for Vienna] I felt myself free. I have been cease-
lessly occupied with souls, having been able to preach to the
Queens and to the Empress, to the Queen of Holland, and to
the Viceroy, in announcing to them the great approaching
events.'' She presented herself to Hortense as soon as the
ex- Queen arrived at Baden, and strongly advised her not to
return to France, assuring heir that 1815 would be a terrible
year ; Napoleon would come back, and all who adhered to him
be persecuted. She told her to go to Russia, where Alexander
was the refuge of the unfortunate. Hortense introduced her
to Eugene and his wife, who were chiefly impressed by her
haggard, emaciated appearance and grey hair ; but there is
little doubt they repeated the prophecy to Napoleon, who was
inclined to believe it. He had formerly consulted Mdlle. Le
Normand, a sil)yl without Madame de Krudener's rank aiid
talent; and had encouraged superstition to work upon his
subjects till he began to imbibe a small share of it himself.
In a long letter from Strasburg to Mdlle. Stourdza, during the
Empress's visit to Vienna, she speaks strongly against the fetes
and entertainments at the Congress. " Do they never shock
you ? Can they dance and clothe themselves in rich draperies
when dark hatred tears the human race ?" She regarded con-
certs and dancing at all times as " voluptuous amusements,"
and a theatre as the house of Satan ; but now above all she felt
their incongruity when contrasted with the mourning produced
by war, a war which she felt would shortly be renewed.
" Guilty France will yet be punished. The storm ad-
vances. Those lilies the Eternal preserved^ which ought

1 74 Alexander B Second Campaign in France,

to have been called to purity, to repentance, have appeared
to disappear. You wished you could tell me of the great
beauties of the Emperor's soul. I seem to know him already.
I have known for a long time that the Lord will give me the
joy of seeing him. If I live it will be one of the happy mo-
ments of my life. There is no terrestrial duty sweeter than
to love and respect him whom one ought to love and
respect by the order of God Himself. I have great things
to say to him, for I have felt much on his account. My
business is to be without fear and without reproach, his
to be at the feet of Christ. Ah, that it might be on his knees
that he may receive from Christ those great lessons which as-
tonish the human heart, and will fill with holy joy that heart
filled now with holy uneasiness ! Prince Galitzin has sent me
1000 crowns for our old Jung. I guess the hand which sent
them, but I am silent. May the Most High bless that hand, and
may the fear of Him who carries peace march before him.'*
At the same time she wrote to one of Hortense^s maids of
honour: "The Viceroy will learn many things at Vienna.
Peace cannot be arranged till they see it is not man who has
the power to make it.'' She expressed a wish to be at Vienna
on account of " an old sinner,'' as she calls him, the Prince
de Ligne, who had formerly loved her, and ^' once possessed a
conscience." He styled her the Grey Sister of Hearts, and she
hoped to rouse him. This letter arrived at the very time of
his sudden death, and Mdlle. Stourdza showed it to the Em-
press, and she in her turn to the Emperor, who said he should
like to meet the writer. Her allusion to the Bourbons coin-
cided with his own opinion that they would never maintain
their place in France. '' I do not know," he said to Eugene,
'^ if I shall not some day repent of having put the Bourbons
on the throne. They are a bad set of people. We have had
them in Russia, and I know how little they are to be depended
on." Again Madame de Krudener wrote to her friend : " I
spoke of my respectful and profound admiration for the Em-
peror. I have immense things to say to him, and though the
Prince of Darkness may do all in his power to prevent it, and
to thrust away those who might speak to him of Divine things,
the Eternal will be the strongest." In February, 1815, she
went to a mill at Schluchtem, in Hesse, and there waited for
an opportunity of meeting Alexander. Crowds followed to

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 175

listen to her preaching; and she persuaded whole villages to
sell all their property and establish themselves in the Maho-
metan districts of Russia to convert the heatlien.

It has been thought^ but perhaps unjustly^ that the reli-
gious influence she acquired over the Empress induced her to
refuse a thorough reconciliation with the Emperor^ and prefer
a secluded life of prayer. Madame de Krudener used to quote
from St. Paul : '^ The unmarried woman careth for the things
of the Lord; that she may be holy both in body and spirit ; but
she that is married careth for the things of the world; how
she may please her husband ;'' and her exhortations were not
calculated to strengthen matrimonial ties. But the Imperial
couple parted affectionately at Vienna.^

Alexander had a slight return of fever and erysipelas in
April; and the extremely lowering treatment prescribed at
that time; as a means of warding off such attacks; made him
feel the fatigue of his journey more than usual when he left
Vienna to join his army at Heidelberg on May 26th. He
declined an invitation to rest at Munich, and was distressed
by the brilliant reception the Bavarians gave him in every
town he entered. He had an interview with KosciuskO; at
Brunau; and could not avoid spending a day with his uncle
at Stuttgart; but he then pushed on to Heilbroun. He was
in no enviable state of mind. He had trusted in Napoleon's
honouT; though all precedent told him that the man who
marked out officers for especial distinction when they broke
their parole was not likely to keep his own ; and on all sides
he was now accused of plunging Europe into another war.
The revelation of the secret treaty exhibited the Ul-feeling of

• " What joa tell me of the Emperor gives me ^eat pleasure," writes
Madame Svetchiae to Mdlle. Stourdza. " At last from all parts they do
him justice. It cannot be concealed that happinesf< only gives a spirit of
equity to great masses, and the vulgar will never have a heart for any-
tmng but success. . . . Though we know nothing positive about the
plans on which you depend, I presume that the ISmperor setting out
again in a short time, you will remain in foreigp countries aU the time
which will elapse before he returns to us, a tmie which the affairs of
Europe, where the Emperor is truly the advocate-general, may make
indefinite. The sojourn in Grermany will prolong to you that life of
enchantment which never counts too many pages. Also this prolonged
absence appears to me a favourable chance to the return of the angel's
happiness. Far from hostile and jealous looks, from the devices of
ingenious intrigue, fewer obstacles may perhaps be opposed to a change
itanerfate."

176 Alexanders Second Campaign in France.

his allies ; that France ignored any obligation for his extreme
moderation^ and was still his enemy ; while even England lent '
herself to the fickle policy of the Continent, and had declared
against him. How much more advantageous it might have
been for Russia if, leaving France to carry on her quarrel with
England and Germany, he had originally followed out the
wishes of his people, and concentrated his strength against
Turkey ! This may have passed through his mind, for nothing
was more discouraging than the accounts from Russia, where
his prolonged absence was exciting universal discontent, and
the want of money had put a stop to all mercantile under-
takings in St. Petersburg. Lord Walpole, writing in March
from the Russian capital to Lord Castlereagh, says : '^ Those
hitherto most loud in praises of the Emperor have lately
changed their tone. His refusal to reduce any part of the
military establishment has caused a strong sensation \ the whole
revenue of the empire is unequal to it. Bonaparte's evasion
has caused a strong sensation, and we are accused as the
authors of it.'' A new tariff was "being drawn up by
order of the Emperor, but it was unpopular, as too liberal.
A committee was called to revise it. Again, in May, he
writes, that owing to the destruction of Moscow and other
causes, the price of houses has become enormous, and that
during the last ten months every necessary of life — com,
wood, forage. See. — is more than doubled. A new issue of
Government paper and a forced loan were proposed, but the
Emperor rejected them, and preferred the alternative of new
taxes. '' Aratchaief does not join the Emperor. His place as
General de Service is filled by another. He is the only man
supposed to have had power over his master's mind. The
kingdom of Poland very much displeases here. Silver again
rises in price ; it is nearly five roubles the silver rouble, ducats
14J roubles." And this at the commencement of a new
war.

Alexander arrived at Heilbronn June 4th, having travelled
throughout several nights since he left Vienna. He received
the authorities of the town, and after an exciting day, sought
his quarters for the night. He took up a book, though too
much tired and depressed to read, when Madame de Krude-
ner was suddenly announced; Prince Yolkonski having vainly

Alexander s Second Campaign in France. 177

tried to keep her from insisting on an audience. Her lan-
guage was as uncompromising to her Sovereign as to his
meanest subject. She accused him of pride^ and told him he
could never expect peace till he had humiliated himself with
the prayer of the publican ; that he should listen to her^ who
had also been a great sinner^ but had found pardon at the
foot of the Cross. Then perceiving that she had touched an
open wound she expressed regret^ but he desired her to go
on ; and afterwards wrote to his wife^ that she had calmed the
trouble which had overshadowed him for so long; and
Madame de Krudener on her side stated that she had inspired
him ^* with a holy contrition and durable repentance^ in the
place of discouragement and remorse.'^

The next morning Alexander joined his army at Heidel-
berg. Madame de Krudener resided in a labourer's cottage about
half a mile distant^ with her son-in-law, the Baron de Berck-
heim, and an evangelical pastor named Empaytaz, where, every
second day, the Emperor came to their prayer meeting at ten
P.M. and often conversed with them till two a.h., but was always
alone. No one disliked ridicule more than he, and a man
educated by the disciples of Voltaire could not fail to perceive
that the fact of joining a prayer meeting in a labourer's
cottage might be a subject for ridicule to many of his con-
temporaries. There never was an age in which religious lay-
men were looked upon with more contempt in England as well
as on the Continent, and Alexander showed his sincerity by
incurring it. He seems to have had doubts as to the duty of
sacrificing his army in a cause which did not concern Russia ;
and said to Madame de Krudener, as he had said at Vilna
in 1813, that he would thankfully give his own life to accom-
plish his object of procuring peace to Europe.

The Allies, accustomed to Napoleon's system of war,
waited to begin the campaign till their forces were concen-
trated, and not offer him the chance of dealing singly with
the first in the field ; and Alexander stayed at Heidelberg,
under cover of the Rhine, for the arrival of his Guards, and
till the British and Prussian armies should have adyanced
nearer to the point of rendezvous. Then the news came that
Napoleon, masking his movements, had poured suddenly upon
Belgium, and was about to engage the British and Prussian

vol. III. N

178 Alexander* 8 Second Campaign in France.

troops. Lord Cathcart wrote from Heidelberg^ June 18th :
'^ The Russian army, if not in time to take the lead in this
operation^ will at least have troops enough present to support
and follow it up/' He then refers to the affairs of Switzer-
land, where M. de la Hai*pe '' had been holding yery injudicious
and unfit language, perfectly unauthorized by the Emperor,
who sent a practical disavowal in a treaty with the Swiss.
Kesselrode is at head-quarters, and has been with me for some
time this evening/' But that very day a decisive battle was
fought at Waterloo, and Napoleon, outstripping the ministers
and civil functionaries who accompanied him on the field,
abandoned his army, and even his private papers and carriage,
to secure the swiftest mode of flight. He had twice left his
troops to save themselves — ^in Egypt and Russia, but on
this, the third occasion, even his brother Jerome exclaimed,
" Can it be possible that he will not seek death ? Never will
he find a more glorious grave.''

The news was received by Alexander with the greatest joy,
and he was bold enough to say he felt very thankful the
campaign was decided without the loss of any of his own
troops. He crossed the Rhine on June 25th, and proceeded
with little opposition to Paris. The French made a slight
stand at Ch&lons ; but the war did not cost him above forty
men, and he arrived in the French capital on July 10th.
Yery different from his march, distributing money as he went
along among the peasants stripped by the French conscripts,
was that of the avengers of blood who entered the country
by the Belgian frontier. "The Prussians of our time,"
writes Scott, who visited Waterloo and Quatre Bras a few
weeks after the battle, " will never forget or forgive the dread-
ful injuries inflicted by the French upon their country afler
the defeat of Jena. The plunder of their hamlets, with every
inventive circumstance which evil passions could suggest — the
murder of the father or the husband, because he looked
dangerous when he beheld his property abandoned to rapine,
his wife or daughters to abuse, and his children to wanton
slaughter. The officers thought of the period when Prussia
had been blotted out of the book of nations, her Queen
martyred by studied and reiterated insult, and her King only
permitted to retain the name of a Sovereign to increase his

Alexander's Second Campaign in Trance. 179

disgrace as a bondsman/' They resented not being permitted
to exact a thorough retribution in 1814, and they were now
resolved to have their revenge.*

The British army behaved with its accustomed chivahy;
but both French and Prussians disgraced themselves at
Waterloo by many acts of barbarism. '' Most of the
prisoners/' writes Scott, "whom the French took from our
light cavalry were put to death in cold blood, or owed their
safety to concealment or a speedy escape. Even the British
officers who were carried before Bonaparte (after Quatre Bras),
although civilly treated while he spoke to them, were no
sooner out of his presence than they were stripped, beaten,
and abused. Their lancers rode over the field during the
action, despatching the wounded British with the most
inveterate rancour.'' The Prussians, having taken less part
in the great battle of June 18th, were intrusted with the
pursuit ; and they carried it out with such vigour that many
of the fugitives traversed a space of 100 miles in forty-eight
hours to effect their escape.

Napoleon said at St. Helena that there was no cannon-shot
for him at Waterloo, wishing to convey to his auditors the
idea that he was much exposed ; but the accounts published by
those who were with him during the day, prove this was by
no means the case. '' From 2 till 6.45," wrote a member of
his staff,t '^ Bonaparte commanded the operations and move-
ments from a position where he remained without any danger
whatever to his own person; he was at least a cannon-shot
and a half off. When convinced that the corps d'armee he
had so long and so obstinately mistaken was a Prussian corps,
he seemed to think affairs were desperate, and that he had no
other resource than to make a great effort with the reserve of
his Guard, composed of 1500 men. He ordered them
forward, and accompanied them nearer to the battle, but
halted himself under the broken ground of a sand-pit or
ravine, and a little on one side, out of the direction of the
cannon-balls. It was at this moment the decisive crisis of
the battle began. Bonaparte had six persons close to him : his
brother Jerome, Generals Bertrand, Drouet, Bernard, Daubers,

• Sir Walter Soott*8 Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. 1815.
f Pablished in the Gentleman' e Magazine, September, 1815.

n2

180 Alewande/a Second Campaign in France,

and Labedoyere. At every step he took^ or seemed to take,
to put his own person in front, Grenerals Bertrand and Drouet
threw themselves before his horse's head, and exclaimed in a
pathetic accent, ' Ah, Sire, what are you going to do ? Con-
sider the safety of France and the army is lost if any accident
happens to you/ Bonaparte yielded with a real or affected effort.
But it was singular that the men who knew so well how to
moderate his ardour were the only persons he never sent out
to reconnoitre the battle ; while he sent the rest twenty times
into the midst of the fire, to carry orders or bring him
information. Jerome having taken aside and whispered with
one of his brother's aides-de-camp, Bonaparte sent him several
times into the middle of the fire, as if to get rid of such a
critic. Jerome, in fact, took it greatly to heart that hia
brother did not profit by this occasion to die in a glorious
manner, and I distinctly heard him say so to General Ber-
trand Bonaparte disappeared from us under pretext of

going himself to ascertain the state of things, and to put
himself at the head of his Guards to reanimate them, but
before effecting his personal retreat, to get rid of impertinent
witnesses, he directed all those round him to carry different
orders at once, and to bring information, the result of which
could not concern him in the least." When he saw his Guards
bending before the English cavalry, he turned to Bertrand,
saying, '^ All is over ; let us save ourselves -" and leaving his
generals to sustain the battle till he was out of reach, he put
spurs to hia horse, and first drew bridle in a field near Quatre
Bras, where he took some refreshment, and then rode on all
night till he reached Charleroi. At Philippeville he met his
secretary, and they wept together over his defeat.* He was,
in fact, the first to bear the news of the battlet to Paris,
where he arrived on the 21st, and alighted at the Elysle.
Caulaincourt soon joined him, and listened to his abuse of the

• Fleuiy du Chabaudon.
t The acoount he brought was, however, aa false as most of hia
bulletins. He pretended that he had beaten the English, taken six
standards, and the day was decided, when on the approa(m of night some
disaffected persons spread an alarm, and occasioned a disorder which his
presence could not, on account of the night, recover. He returned to
Paris to order a levy en masse of the National Guard and ask for more
materiel. It was the officers flying from the battle who first brought the
truth.

' Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 181

braye generals who had risked everything for his glory. He
still hoped to save his throne^ and his brother Lucien pleaded
his cause uselessly in the Chamber of Representatives. He
was told that unless he abdicated his dethronement on the
motion of Lafayette would be carried, and he made a last
attempt to secure his dynasty by proclaiming his son, as he
imagined that Russia at least would not restore Louis. The
more his hopes were excited of Alexander's assistance from
the opposition he met with at the Congress, the more bitter
be felt against him when those hopes were entirely crushed,
and he ever afterwards declared that Alexander was the soul
and promoter of the campaign of 1815, for he imagined the
British Opposition, who had spoken strongly against it in both
Houses of Parliament, would have inclined their Government
to peace if left to itself. He retired to Malmaison, where, far
from occupying himself in reveries on the wife whom he had
discarded for the sake of a bride of higher birth, he was busied
in securing and packing up any object of value he could carry
away, among other things a clock of Frederick the Great,
which he had brought from Potsdam. He offered the Pro-
visional Government to place himself at the head of the
French armies still on foot, as a simple general in their
service, to oppose the advancing forces of the Allies, and to
defend Paris, but the offer was coldly declined : they preferred
to trust once more to the mercy of the eneqiy than carry on
a prolonged and probably hopeless war.

On June 29th, when the English and Prussians, bearing
down all opposition, were within three days' march of Paris,
Napoleon had completed his preparations for a flight, which
was hastened by a peremptory order from the Assembly, and
Davoust threatened to arrest him if he refused to obey.
Napoleon spoke to Caulaincourt of going either to England or
the United States. '' 1 tried an insinuation,'' writes the
Duke, '^ of which he seized the spirit." " No," said he,
warmly, ''that would not do. Between the Emperor Alex-
ander and me there are old remembrances which would render
a step towards him impossible." He set out for Rochefort
with a train of carriages laden with all the plunder he could
collect from the French palaces, and arrived there July 8rd,
corresponding with his army till the 14tb, as the vigilance of

182 Alexander's Second Campaign in France,

the British cruisers prevented him from embarking for the
United States.

In the mean time the English and Prussian troops entered
Paris; and Louis^ following them^ was again proclaimed.
The allied Sovereigns were all in Paris on the lOth^ and any
moment active steps might be taken to arrest the ex-Emperor.
He began to negotiate through Las Cases and Savary with
the captain of the Bellerophon, a British man-of-war stationed
on the coast. His friends tried to persuade this officer
that as his departure from France was voluntary^ no one
ought to interrupt his passage to any point he chose ; but the
captain answered^ he had strict orders to prevent Napoleon's
escape^ and convey him to England if he obtained possession
of his person. He entered the Bellerophon perfectly aware
that he was merely throwing himself on England's mercy.
But he had no other choice^ unless he wished to fall into the
hands of the Allies, and Blucher had stated that if he caught
him he should shoot him at once.

On July 13th Napoleon wrote a letter to the Prince Regent^
comparing himself to Themistocles, and claiming his protec-
tion ^' as the most powerful^ most constant, and most generous
of my enemies.^' He went on board the Bellerophon with his
suite^ and took the greatest pains to conciliate the English
oflScers. At Plymouth crowds of people came from the shore
in boats and warmly cheered him. He seemed much pleased,
and, though not allowed to land^ ordered anything he liked
from the town; and procured quantities of wine, fruit, and
other luxuries at the English expense. He passed most of his
time in playing at chess; but his partner, Montholon, who
was the better player of the two, made obviously bad moves
when he was having the best of the game, so that Napoleon
might always win it. On July 31st it was announced to him
that the British Government had decided to send him to St.
Helena, as a place where he would be secure, but at the same
time allowed personal freedom. He dwelt more on the
term ^^(Jeneral Bonaparte'' being used in the official document
than anything else, but protested he would . not go to St.
Helena — ^he would die first. The climate would kill him in
three months. He asked to reside quietly in England, and
become a British subject. "Otherwise," he said, "why

Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France. 183

■• —

should I not have gone to my father-in-law^ or to Alexander,
who was my personal friend? We have become enemies
because he wanted to annex Poland to his dominions, and my
popularity among the Poles was in his way. But otherwise
he was my friend, and would not have treated me in this way.
.... When I was at Elba I was at least as much a Soyereign
in that island as Louis on the throne of France. We had
both our respective flags, our ships, our troops. Mine, to be

sure, were rather on a small scale I made war upon

him, defeated him, and dethroned him. But there was nothing
in this to depriye me of my rank as one of the SoTereigns of
Europe.^^ He repeated this pleading and his protest that he
would not go to St. Helena, and his manner was so persuasive
that the English officers said if he had had a personal inter-
view with the Regent, in half an hour he would have converted
him into his friend. He inquired from Lord Keith, privately,
what measure he could take to avert it. Lord Keith asked
him if it was not surely preferable to being sent a prisoner
to France, or perhaps to Russia ? '^ Russia !'^ he exclaimed ;
" God preserve me from it.''

Mr. Lyttleton and Lord Lowther saw him on board, when
he talked incessantly upon every political subject. He tried
to please the English by speaking highly of the Prince Regent.
Oeneral Bertrand put in that Alexander was a good man,
his heart better than his head, but he did not think him a
great one. The English Liberal newspapers asserted that
Napoleon added, " Nor do I f but Mr. Lyttleton formaUy
contradicted it, and said Napoleon was taking a pinch of
snufl^, and made no reply. He was permitted to take three
general officers and their families, with twelve servants, to
St. Helena, whither, in spite of continued, though good-
humoured remonstrances, he was landed on October 15th.
On the way he became more reconciled to his fate, and, after
minute inquiries about the climate, he said he thought he
should be more comfortable there than in Austria, and that
he had never been ill more than twice in his whole life.
Indeed, no small part of his success might be ascribed to his
excellent health.

Two officers on board the Bellerophon gave similar descrip-
tions of him, and they thought he looked less than his age,

184 Alexander's Second Campaign in 'France.

which was forty-aix or forty-seven. He was extremely curious,
iaquiring into everything, with grey eyes, a very pletrating
glance^ little or no eyelashes^ no eyebrow, dark brown hair
with no appearance of grey^* a sallow or southern complexion,
only five feet two inches in height, and very corpulent, but
otherwise symmetrical, and giving the idea of great strength.
His hands small, but square and brown, for he never wore
gloves ; his feet also small, but broad. His attitudes were un-
graceful, but he was as active as a sailor in springing up the
side of the vessel. He was very deep-chested. His dress was
a green uniform faced with red, and he wore the Legion of
Honour. He rose at seven o'clock, but seldom appeared
before half-past ten, as he was very particular about his
toilet 3 though during the day he took so much snuff that his
face was usually stained with it. He read a good deal, talked
to the sailors, and retired to bed about eight. He was trans-
ferred to another ship, handsomely fitted up to convey him to
St. Helena, and the Prince Regent gave personal orders that
he should be supplied with every comfort.

It is diflScult to comprehend the philanthropy which con-
sidered the murder of the Due d'Engbien, of Palm, of Hofer,
of the Prussian patriots, of the Russian prisoners, of the sick
at Jaffa, of the garrison of Acre two days after they had
surrendered their arms, of Toussaint POuverture the negro
chief, sent to perish of cold and starvation in the snows
of the Jura, and the forcible abduction and imprisonment
of the Pope and the Spanish princes as venial offences,
yet could blame the British Government for its conduct
towards the man who caused the ruin of so many of her
citizens by forcibly detaining them in his dominions, contrary
to the usages of civilized nations ; and had only lately, by a
glaring breach of faith, headed an insurrection in France which
cost the English at least 22,000 men. The French Empire
conducted its measures from the very first with as little
regard to international law as the pirate vessel which enriches
itself by murder and rapine ; and its chief could plead no

* " Las Cases relates that at St. Helena Napoleon observed one day
that on his return from Moscow it was reported in Paris his hair had
erown grey. ' But j^ou see that is false/ he said, showing his head, which
aid not contain a single white hair ; ' and I Lope that 1 shall know how
to support many more of them.' " — ^M^morial de St. H^l^ne.

Alexander's Second Campaign in France* 185

*' rights/' which he had always systematically disregarded^ but
had incurred the same penalties as the brigand or buccaneer.
Yet even the brigand or buccaneer has been known to submit
philosophically to his fate^ and to feel some remorse on
account of the confederates whom he had led to their destruc-
tion^ and a desire to mitigate their punishment. But the insensi-
bility to anything but his own self-aggrandizement^ or personal
rancours, which Napoleon exhibited throughout his career^
adhered to him to the end of his life.* While Prance lay
tremblingly awaiting the sentence of her conquerors^ and Ney,
Labedoyere^ and others who had assisted him were doomed to
deaths his mind could dwell on small personal grievances — being
reftised the title of Emperor^ and being obliged to let an
English officer see him once a day^ in order to be assured of
his security ; and could plead his own cause to the British
officers with the greatest vehemence^ without a word for the
hapless country he had brought to the verge of ruin. Far
from troubling himself about her^ he was soon absorbed with
the idea of writing his memoirs, falsifying history, and to show
that in every instance in which he had failed it had been
through the fault or treachery of his subordinates, or that his
virtuous simplicity was deceived by the double nature of his
opponents. The Marquis de Chambray spoke truly when he
said that the character of Napoleon was far below his fortunes
and his fame.

The admirable order preserved by the British troops made
the rumour that their Government intended to reclaim Nor-
mandy very acceptable in the north of Prance. But the
Prussians were no longer kept in check by their Russian allies,t
and Paris was perhaps saved from destruction by resolving to
open her gates. Louis retired no further than Ghent when
he left Paris, and there he wrote to Alexander, who replied
rather laconically, but told Pozzo di Borgo, who assisted at the

* At Elba. Sir Neil Campbell was of opinion that his only feelings
were vanity and revenge.

t Napoleon, for political motives, had instilled such a dread of the
Cossacks into the French people that, as a matter of oonrse, every depre-
dation was attributed to fiiem. Count Beugnot gives a story of Louis
XVIIL's indifference when he passed a cottage on his road from Ghent
just destroyed by " the Cossacks," whereas no Cossack had been near his
route during Uie campaign of 1815, and he travelled in the rear of the
Prussian army.

186 Alexanders Second Campaign in France.

battle of Waterloo^ that it was his wish the King should be
restored^ on which the Russian ambassador sent to advise him
to come back to Paris, " lest his place should be filled up ;''
so Louis drove into his capital the day after the British and
Prussian troops made their triumphal entrance. He tried
to act with a high hand towards the Legislative Body, and dis-
missed both Houses ; but a hundred of them protested, and
continued to hold their sittings. The Prussians coerced the
disaffected by quartering from ten to fifty soldiers upon each,
and Louis ordered the names of twenty-nine of Napoleon^s
nobles to be erased from the Peerage, including Ney, Latour,
Maubourg, Segur, Casabianca, the Duke of Dantzic, Albufera,
and Montesquieu. By a second ordinance nineteen officers
were tried for waging war against the Government, including
Ney, Labedoyere, Lallemand, Drouet, Bertrand, Savary,
Grouchy, Lefebvre, and La Valette. Caulaincourt was par-
doned at Alexander's request. Soult, Bassano, Durbach, and
thirty-two more were to quit Paris within three days, remain-
ing under surveillance till the Chambers settled their fate.
Talleyrand, returned fix>m Vienna, was received with favour by
the King, and by his advice the infamous Fouch^ was retained
in ofSce.

Blucher announced his intention of laying a contribution
of 4,000,000/. sterling on Paris, as Napoleon had done on
Berlin, and pulling down the Venddme pillar and the Bridge
of Jena, as Napoleon had destroyed the monument of the vic-
tories of Frederick the Great. Wellington wrote to advise him
to wait till Alexander arrived, as during the previous occupa-
tion he had thought fit to let them stand ; but Blucher began
to undermine the bridge. The Duke and Lord Castlereagh
sent Pozzo di Borgo to meet Alexander on his road, with copies
of the reports of the battles and all that had since passed ;
and the Emperor quickly stopped the destruction of the bridge
by stationing a regiment upon it. He arrived in Paris at
8.80 P.M. of July 10th, and Louis at once visited him at
the Elys^, and remained three hours^ in a very different
mood from that in which he met the Czar in 1814. He was now

* Alexander's march was Spires, Jnne 27th ; Bheinzabem» 28th ;
Weissenburg, 29th ; Haffenau, 30th ; Savem, July 1st ; Saarboorg, 2iid ;
Hall, 3rd ; Yick, 4th ; Nancy, 5th, &jo.

Alexander's Second Campaign in France. 187

full of apologies^ and ready to take his advice in the hope of
obtaining some relaxation in the conditions of peace. On one
point Alexander was inflexible. Louis must dismiss Blacas^
and must not replace him by Talleyrand, for both were enemies
to Russia and to the constitution which was necessary to
maintain the repose of France. Talleyrand had proved that
he could forego the real interests of France for personal rea-
sons, and had practised fraud and trickery too long in his
diplomacy to alter now. It would be impossible for Russia to
place faith in the professed principles of a French ministry
while he formed part of it. Louis at first resisted this demand,
but the Czar told him he would not oppose the partition of
France unless a Cabinet was formed to reconcile opposing fac-
tions, and keep France from agitating all Europe; and he pro-
posed the Due de Richelieu, who had been governor of Odessa
for eleven years. The Duke was inclined to remain in Russia,
but Alexander said his first duty lay with his native country,
which now absolutely required him ; and Louis felt himself
obliged to yield, and dismissed the two ministers from their
posts, although Talleyrand tried to please the Emperor by
proposing to place Fozzo di Borgo in the new Cabinet.* A
paragraph in an English newspaper (July 21st) says, '^ The Em-
peror of Russia seems to be a great favourite with the people,
who hope through his interest to avoid the evils of war.''

Lord Liverpool writes to Lord Castlereagh, July 15th : '' It
is satisfactory to find the Emperor of Russia in so reasonable a
state of mind, and so likely to co-operate with us cordially in
the great objects we must all equally have in view.'' He goes
on to say that forbearance towards France would be weakness,
not mercy, and pressed that Paris should be stripped '^ of the
trophies she had acquired in her campaigns, as the Allies had
as much right to take possession of them by right of con-
quest as she, and leaving them would only foster her vanity,"
&c. Lord Castlereagh answered : ^' I have nothing to com-
plain of ; on the contrary, much to acknowledge, in the spirit
of conciliation hitherto shown by the Emperor of Russia, but I
think you must not expect him to go all your lengths. ....
The Emperor, expressing his wish to act in concert with the
Prince Regent in consolidating the peace of Europe, asked me

* £eugnot*8 Memoirs.

188 Alexanders Second Campaign in France.

in confidence if anything passed when he was in England on
his part which had given nnibrage to his Boyal Highness, ex-
pressing himself at the same time in very proper terms on
the subject. I beg you will mention this conciliatory over-
ture ; and as any personal coolness between two such person-
ages can be productive of no advantage^ perhaps his Boyal
Highness will authorize me to say something civil on his
part to the Emperor, who takes great pains to show attention
to the Duke of Wellington and to the British army here. I
should also wish to receive the Prince's commands upon the
invitation to be given to the Emperor of Austria. I delayed
it till I knew whether the Prince would wish anything to be
said to the other Sovereigns. I can venture to say all will
decline. The Emperor of Austria is most impatient to go to
Italy. The Emperor of Bussia not less so to return home.''*

Lord Liverpool wrote to Castlereagh, July 28th : '^ 1 read to
the Prince Begent that part of your letter which alluded to the
conversation his Imperial Majesty had with you. . . . The
Prince wishes you to express to the Emperor of Bussia that
his Boyal Highness is perfectly satisfied that if there was any
misconception it was perfectly unintentional, and that he can
never entertain any sentiment but cordiality and firiendship
towards his Imperial Majesty." An invitation was sent to
the three Sovereigns, which they all declined.

Alexander again opposed the dismemberment of France,
though Lord Liverpool, on behalf of his Government, strongly
urged it.f The Prussians demanded Alsace and Lorraine,
Austria part of the ancient Burgundy, the Netherlands a por-
tion of Picardy, and every nation an indemnity for the ex-
penses of the whole war. Castlereagh writes on August 17th
to his chief, that he thinks '^ it would be unwise to reduce
France too much ; and though Great Britain's interests are
more identical with the interests of Austria and Prussia than
Bussia, yet those two Courts require to be watched lest they
should push their selfish policy to the detriment of the general
interests." He had ^' received much support from the Bussian
minister, and the Czar acted very liberally, in the management
of his troops being as little open to reproach. He put his
second army in motion before he had received even the smallest
* Wellisgton Supplementaxy Despatches, voL ix. f Ibid.

Alexanders Second Campaign in France, 189

assurance of any assistance^ and he stopped their march and
sent them back to Russia when their advance was no
longer necessary. He now urged ^^ a prompt settlement with
France for economy's sake^ as he wanted to send back all his
troops except the stipulated contingent as early in the next
month as possible/^

On his march to Paris Alexander brought magazines of
bread and forage for his troops, so as not to exhaust the last
provisions of the inhabitants^ and^ although much has been
said about the Prussian inhumanity, yet Lord Palmerston was
told at Le Mesnil (September 18th, 1815) that the country had
suffered as much from the French troops the previous year as
firom any excesses of the Allies.

Castlereagh writes* to Lord Liverpool, August 24th, that
'^ amongst the Powers which border on France, there is an
evident desire for strong measures, even to the extent of par-
tial dismemberment. This is the tone of the King of the
Netherlands, of the Prussians loudly, of the Bavarians and
Wiirtemberg. Russia, on the contrary, being remote, rather
inclines to protect France, the Emperor's principles not leading
him to this line. In a long conversation with him the day
before yesterday I could perceive he was averse to any perma-
nent reduction of the territory of France, and that as a
measure of security he looked with more favour to dismantling

than temporarily occupying certain of the fortresses ''

The Prussians openly said of Abace and Lorraine, '^ Instead
of negotiating, let us take possession and hold fast.'' A Prussian
discussing politics before Alexander said, " We have bayonets."
" And I also," said the Emperor irritated \ '' I have bayonets ;"
and he left the room.

Castlereagh wrote, August 10th, that he had talked to the
Emperor on the approaching marriage of the Prince of Orange
with the Grand Duchess Anna, and hoped the connection with
the King of the Netherlands would give his Imperial Majesty
an additional interest in watching over the independence of
that most important part of Europe. The Emperor expressed
in strong terms the pleasure he should feel in co-operating
with the Prince Regent in promoting the security of the
Netherlands. The Emperor refused to keep his army in

* Wellington Despatches, Ac., voL ix.

190 Alexander a Second Campaign in France.

France after September^ for fear of exposing it to a winter
march. The Prussians were becoming very vociferous in their
demands, and determined to change their position in Europe.
They wanted to make the indemnity twelve hundred millions.
Castlereagh complains that Richelieu's appointment will
give the new French Grovemment a strong Russian tinge.
It was soon attacked on this ground, and the wits reported
that the Czar was appointed President of the Cabinet. The
English Foreign Minister adds, that he will lose no time in
concerting with Wellington to bring Alexander to a salutary
decision as to the dismemberment of France and the fortresses,
'^ which, if we succeed^ the difficulties in other quarters may
be comparatively easy to surmount.'^

The Prince of Orange took an active part at the head of the
Dutch army in the battle of Waterloo, where he was wounded,
and as, in spite of six or seven offers, including Napoleon's,
the Orand Duchess Anna still remained single, Alexander
wrote from Paris to the King of Holland to thank him for
recent congratulations, and to propose a marriage between the
Prince and the Grand Duchess. " Whilst I was in uncer-
tainty,'' he said, *^ as to whether his old engagement with the
Princess Charlotte of Wales continued, I abstained from dis-
cussing the matter, but having learned that it was entirely
concluded, I may mention it without reserve. It would give
much pleasure to my mother and myself," &c.*

This letter was sent to Wellington by the King, who asked
him to inform the Regent, giving as a reason for accepting it
the hope of Russia's support, whom he should be afraid to
offend by a refusal : but it seems to have gratiHed the Prince,t
since Sir James fiiddell complains two months later of the
change in his disposition towards England, and his devotion to
the Emperor. It is curious to observe the alteration in the
British policy during the next fifteen years, which made this
Russian alliance the cause of the Dutch King's unpopularity
in Great Britain and France in 1830. The Emperor
Nicholas, being tied by an insurrection in Poland^ England
imited with Louis Philippe to separate Belgium from Holland,
and undo her own work, for the British share of the French
indemnity was spent in restoring the fortifications of Breda

• Wellington Despatches, ^. f Bath Archives, voL ii.

1

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 191

and Antwerp^ and strengthening the positions on the Mosellci
which France ceded to the Netherlands by the treaty of 1815.*
Prussia declared that her safety depended on the pos-
session of Alsace and Lorraine, and was determined in her
claims. Her King listened to Alexander, but had little con-
trol over his own generals ^ and Talleyrand was awakened to
the fn.ct rather late that Prussia and not Russia was the enemy
France had to fear^ and that he had made a grand mistake at
the Congress in trying to alienate Louis from the Czar. In
vain liouis and his ministers protested, that rather than sign
away the French provinces they would encounter another
twenty-five years of war. It was empty boasting when
800,000 troops of the Allies were quartered on the French
soil. All Prussia seemed to have poured into France ; Austria
had sent a stronger army than in 1814, not to share in the
battle — that was over before she arrived — ^but to divide the spoil.
Even the Spaniards crossed the Pyrenees and claimed Boussillon
and Beam. The British army was quartered in the Bois de
Boulogne, and the soldiers cut down the trees for fuel. But
again Alexander showed himself the friend of national rights,
and able to take a just view of the situation of affairs. If

* On the 24tb of Anraii Count Nesselrode forwarded to Lord Castle-
reagb, on the part of Alexander, the following proposal as to the gnaran-
tees to be obtained from France :^

"After bayinff well considered the ideas put forth in the various
memoxialB issnedon the present negotiation with France, his Majesty the
Emperor of Russia is of opinion that the following project will be most
likely to combine the future securitj of Europe with the consideration
that the Powers owe to the Government of the Ejing whose re-establish-
ment and solidity are to be regarded as the first guarantees of a state of
peace and tran(juillity.

" 1. Occupation of*^ places designed by the Duke of Wellington for five
years.

" 2. Cession of Landau as an outpost of Qermany.

" 3. Cession to Switzerland or demolition of Huningen.

" 4. Bestitution to the Kin^ of Sardinia of the part of Savoy united to
France by the Peace of Pans, against the cession on her part for the
rectification of the frontiers of Geneva.

" 5. Restitution of the districts detached from the Low Countries by
the Peace of Paris.

*'6. Contribution equivalent to a jear of revenue of France — say
600.000,000 francs.

*' 7- To comprise in this contribution the fifty millions actually exacted
and the supplieR which have been furnished to the Allies.

"8. To employ the third of this contribution in the construction of
some fortified points in Belgium and in the south of Germany.

** 9. The contribution to be payable in three years."

192 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France.

Austria showed an ^' enormous ingratitude '' when she took
part in the Crimean war^ what can be said to the conduct of
France ? Could she expect Russia^ for a third time after such
a return^ to come forward and help her in her distress in
1870-71 ? He pledged himself to the old King that France
should keep Alsace and Lorraine, and incurred the lasting
enmity of the young Prince of Prussia (Frederick William IV.),
who was imbued with the aggressive spirit of the Prussian youth,
elated by their recent success. When Louis heard the Prus-
sians were going to strip the museums of the pictures and
statuary wrested from foreign towns, some, like Aix-la-Cha-
pelle, actually allies of France, he wrote to ask Alexander's
interference, as he had just saved the bridge of Jena ; but the
Emperor called upon him, and said he had promised his support
with regard to the provinces, but he could not prevent people
from reclaiming their own property. " You must allow me
to serve you in more important matters,'' he added. Blucher
made little ceremony in taking possession of the Prussian
objects of art, and wrote to the Prussian governor of Paris,
October 19th, 1815 :—

'' As my conduct has been publicly censured for not allow-
ing the property plundered from Prussia by a banditti to
remain in the Louvre, I must remark that, ably supported by
the illustrious Wellington, I pursued thieves who had despoiled
many of the nations of Europe, I attacked and dispersed them,
and restored to my country the plunder they had unjustly
taken, spuming the idea of negotiating with the French com-
missioners on that subject.* They may now thank Provi-
dence for our not having followed their base example. —
Blucher/'

* Of the works of art Lord Falmerston remarks in his Diary in 181 5-
18, as one reason amon^ others for the general restitation, that the mere
presence of the Allies m Paris might cnb explained away to fntare gene-
rations "by arrangements and conventions, the payment of sums of
money by the French mi^ht be the stipulation of a ^eaty to which the
Government of France might consent from motives of policy or justice,
but in which it acted, at all events, as an independent Power ; but when
history shall record that these works of art brought to Paris by victory,
and held there by the sword, were sent back to their respective proprietors
by an allied army in possession of Paris, there will exist no doubt but that
such a measure would not have been submitted to unless enforced." All
who are acquainted with the inaccurate and superficial mode in which
the French deal with history must see the justice of this observation.

I

Alexander % Second Campaign in France. 193

He desired his «oldiers not to enrich France^ but to save
their money to revive the struggling fortunes of their native
land^ while the Russian officers lavished whole fortunes on the
jewellers^ shops in Paris. Lord Palmerston writes^ that all
the French agreed the Russian army had behaved well ; and
the Prussians and Bavarians very ill. When it is remem-
bered how many wild tribes were comprised within the Russian
army^ where Sir Walter Scott saw one soldier who had
marched with a contingent from his horde near the great wall
of China^ the extraordinary influence Alexander had gained
over his troops must be admitted^ even if the discipline he
maintained was rather severe. Canova was sent from Italy to
reclaim the works belonging to Rome^ and a British regiment
kept order while the horses of St. IMark^ carried off by force
from an ally^ were taken from the gate of the Tuileries^ to be
restored to Venice. Prussia had lost in the war of 1806-7
60 many pictures^ gems^ cameos^ and other curiosities that the
mere list occupied fifty-three closely-printed pages, and she
now took back as many as she could find. Antwerp received
her most celebrated pictures, and the Vatican was again
adorned with the Transfiguration and the Communion of St.
Jerome, while the most celebrated existing statues of ancient
times were restored to Rome and Florence. Russia and England
had nothing to claim, and the first was considered as too
apathetic in the cause ; but when Alexander heard that the
Elector of Hesse was trying to procure the gallery of Malmai-
Bon in the same way, without payment, having really sold the
contents to Josephine, he bought it from her heirs at a fair
valuation, which enabled them to pay her heavy debts. This
was the only trophy, if it can be called so, which he carried
to St. Petersburg, where they now adorn the palace of the
Hermitage. A French author states that he obtained the
statue of Napoleon firom the column in the Place Venddmc,
but this was not the case, as it was sold to an Englishman by
the city of Paris.

Besides the works of art, all the smaller continental Powers
supported Austria and Prussia in demanding indemnities for
the losses sustained during twenty-five years of war, though
as most of them had suffered as Napoleon^s allies, it was
not altogether deserved. The claims were at first beyond

VOL. III. o

194 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France.

all reason, though they proved that France since the re-
volution had exacted at least 1,020,000^000/. from them ;
but it was agreed by the treaty of 1815, that 29,500,000/.
should be paid to Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, Denmark^
Italy, and the German free towns and smaller States, besides
28,000,000/. to the Allies for the expense of the last arma^
ments. Alexander claimed nothing for the damage sustained
by his own empire, observing truly that nothing could repay
him for Moscow. In addition, the principal frontier fortresset
3 # of France — viz., Cambray, Valenciennes, Longwy, Sedan, Bou-
chain, Conde, Quesnoy, Maubeuge, Landrecies, Avesnes^
Rocroy, Givet, Montmedy, Thionville, Bitche, and Fort Louis,
were to be held by 150,000 British, Russian, Austrian, and
Prussian soldiers, maintained, paid, and clothed at the cost of
France. Versoix, with a small district, was ceded to Geneva ;
the fortifications of Huningen were demolished, and Landau>
Sarrelouis, Philippeville, and Marienburg, with a small terri-
tory annexed to each, were made over to Prussia and the
Netherlands. But the district of Venaissin, the first conquest
of the French republicans, was left to France, so that she still
possessed twenty square leagues of territory above the extent
of the kingdom of Louis XVI.

The Due de Richelieu wept when he signed the treaty, and
preserved as a memorial of Russia's moderation a map with
6^' the provinces marked which were saved by Alexander, who
at this period sent a sharp remonstrance to Spain. Ferdinand
had thrown over the constitution, re-introduced the Inquisition,
and imprisoned many members of the Cortes. In consequence
of this remonstrance, it was stated, they were lightly dealt
with, but the Sovereigns excluded him from their alliance,
while instead of trying to obtain the splendid pictures carried
off from Spain to Paris, he seemed only bent on crushing the
freo spirit that had supported the claims of his family against
Joseph.

On August 2nd a treaty was signed between Russia, Great
Britain, Austria, and Prussia, by which Napoleon was declared
a prisoner of the four allied Powers, who signed the treaty of
March 25th at Vienna; the custody of his person was in-
trusted to Great Britain, but the other Powers might name
commissioners to reside at the place appointed by the English

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 195

Government for his imprisonment. France was so completely
crushed^ that even if he had been left at large in Europe^ he
could never have hoped to set the allied Powers at defiance,
bnt he might, like Garibaldi, have headed disturbances in
Italy or other parts of the Continent ; and while his acces-
sories were being punished by death or exile, it would have
been contrary to all the rules of justice to allow the principal
to go free. Alexander counselled mercy so far as sparing the
lives of those who aided Napoleon in his late attempt, and the
list of condemned and proscribed, originally very numerous,
was reduced to the proportions already mentioned at bis request.
Sut he urged Louis to disband at once the whole French
army, and entirely reorganize it. The presence of the Allies
would prevent disturbances arising from this measure, which
would also save the French Government much expense ; and
as Napoleon had again emptied its treasury, this was a very
important point. The King felt himself wholly at the disposal
of the Allies : if he had imagined in 1814 that the majority of
the French really wished for him, he was quite undeceived in
1815. Pressed between his peopleand their enemies, he could only
hope for moderation from '^ the most generous and the most
influential of the princes of the coalition,^^ and Alexander's
advice became his law. The French might think over the
glory of the reign of Louis XIV., or even of the first days of
the Republic, and sadly compare it with the state to which
they were reduced through Napoleon's Empire, only owing
the last shreds of independence to the Christian forgiveness of
the prince who had most cause to be their enemy.

Castlereagh wrote to Lord Liverpool, July 27th, 1815 : " The
King finds considerable difSculty on the slave-trade pointy
first, because the colonists are his warm adherents; 2ndly,
because Sonaparte has in some degree made the abolition his
own measure. You may, however, consider the point as
carried, and we owe considerable obligations to the Emperor
of Russia for the manner in which he has supported us in
this object.''

Alexander received innumerable petitions and complaints
from all quarters, and Muffling, the Prussian commander of
Paris, calls him too partial to the French. This fault could
not be alleged against the Prussians. Gueisenau, speaking

o2

196 Alexander s Second Campaign in France.

of the treatment of Napoleon^ whom he thought ought to be
put to deaths an idea which Wellington opposed^ said, '' Great
Britain is under weightier obligation to no mortal man than this
very villain ; for by the occurrences whereof he is the author^
her greatness^ prosperity, and wealth have attained their
present elevation. It is quite otherwise with us Prussians.
We have been impoverished by him. Our nobility will never
be able to right itself again. . . . If others will assume a thea-
trical magnanimity, I shall not set myself against it/^ but he
asserts that he considers it ^^ weakness.^' Such the French or
Napoleon would have considered it if the case had been re-
versed, and Alexander and Wellington were before their time.
The Prussians had the pleasure of escorting Hortense to the
frontier, as she had large sums of money at her disposal, and
used them to foster intrigues. Joseph concealed himself for
some little time in his sister-in-law's house (the Crown Princess
of Sweden), and Alexander was supposed to have connived at
his escape, much to Prussia's indignation ; but no object could
have been attained by delivering up this most harmless
member of the family to vengeance, and the outcry against
them was so great at that time that his life would hardly
have been safe. The trial of the proscribed officers was an
exciting episode in the summer of 1815. Several of these
desperadoes, headed by Labedoyere, made a plan to overpower
the guards at the different houses of the allied Sovereigns and
assassinate them all. A similar plot was to take effect on the
7th of August, at a party at the Duke of Wellington's.*
A letter was sent to Alexander, signed " the Captain of the
Regicides," in which he was threatened with death if he did
not proclaim Napoleon II. A poisoned bottle of wine was
also placed on his table, and his cook, who tasted it, nearly
lost his life.

But at last the proscribed were one by one hunted down,
with the exception of a few chiefs, including Ney, and it was
not till affcer Alexander had left Paris that he was arrested
and executed.

No one could have been more guilty than Labedoyere, but
his case excited sympathy from the exertions of his wife and *
mother in his cause, and his frank confession and repentance.
* Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, 1815.

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 197

In vain Ms wife threw herself at the feet of the King to ask
his pardon : she was refused^ and then applied to Alexander.
The Emperor told her he could not interfere with the decision
of the French tribunals^ though he truly pitied her. He felt,
indeed, that Louis was as guilty as his subjects for having
deserted the helm in the hour of danger ; but his interposition
was required on so many important State matters, that he did
not consider it advisable to use his personal influence where a
man was justly condemned. He said to the Duchesse d^An-
goulSme, who was known to urge severity on her uncle, '' Of
what use is such rigour ? What can come of it i^' " Sire/'
replied the Duchess, '^ justice demands firmness, and the
enforcing of proper measures.'^ '^Madame, if justice has
rights, there are also the claims of mercy.'' *' Mercy," said
she, '^ cannot be distinguished from weakness." ^^I think
you are mistaken, madame," he said; '^it may sometimes
gain hearts, and secure them." But she had no idea of this
mode of securing attached subjects, and accordingly Labedoyere
with several more suffered death.

Madame de Krudener, her daughter and son-in-law, with
their companions the German pastors, left Heidelberg a few
days after the Russian army, and followed the Emperor to
Paris, where they established themselves in a house at the
back of the Elysfe Bourbon. There they held prayer-
meetings, and the great world and even the clergy of Paris
were attracted by the chance of seeing the Emperor, and
curious to hear a woman who had given up a palace to live
among the poor. She established an association for inter-
cessory prayer from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, which
prayed for special persons and occasions at every hour of the
day, and ^' her warmth and enthusiasm impressed if it did not
convert the lighthearted people of Paris. Many a Parisian
scoffer, going to hear her in her drawing-room, which was
open to all, returned," says Sainte-Beuve, " at least thoroughly
subdued by her personal magnetism. Those who seriously
believe," he adds, " in the intervention of Providence in the
affairs of the world, should not judge her too superciliously.
1815 was a decisive epoch, and to religious minds it may
well have appeared that the crisis was grave enough to
demand a prophet." Historical compilers have much exag-

198 Alexanders Second Campaign in France.

gerated her intercourse with Alexander. Capefigae antedates
it^ and in his History of the Restoration^ after passing in
review all the persons assembled at the Congress, describes
the Emperor of Russia kneeling in an oratory with Madame de
Elrudener. " It is doubtless/' he says, " during this sojourn of
Madame de Krudener at Vienna, that she persuaded Alexander
that Napoleon was the Black Devil, or the genius of battles,
and that he was the White Angel, or the genius of peace/'
The fact is, she never was at Vienna ; their first meeting took
place after the termination of the Congress, and she com-
bated rather than joined in Alexander's vision of peace.
Sainte-Beuve says that the religious service on September 11 th,
in the midst of a review of the Russian troops on the Plaine
des Vertus, was dedicated to her, whereas it was only the
ordinary service always held on Alexander's fite-day. An
English historian* asserts that Alexander '^ during September
and October of this year, spent whole days at Paris in a
mystical communication of sentiments with this remarkable
lady." Alexander left Paris before the beginning of October,
and his religious exercises never drew him away from the
business of his empire. They entrenched only on his houi*s
of recreation and rest. His correspondence and the con-
temporary journals show how all his days were occupied, but
he spent some part of every alternate evening at her house
during a period of his visit. It had been his occasional
habit in St. Petersburg to pass an hour or two of his leisure
evenings with some quiet philanthropic family, though he left
it off when he found it was misconstrued. He could not
imagine that a visit to Madame de Elrudener, a worn, haggard
woman of fifty, thirteen years his senior, could produce any
evil reports ; and as a man, sick in body, finding no relief
from regular physicians, seeks for cure from a quack, so the
Emperor, fatigued and uneasy in his mind, unable to procure
consolation from the orthodox ministers of religion, was
willing to look for it wherever it seemed likely to be found.
His recent conversation with the Quakers in England pre-
pared him for female inspiration, if he had even resisted the
superstitions common to his countrymen. He had inquired

* Alison. This is refuted by Madame de Krudener's own corre-
spondence.

Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France. 199

«» ■■ ■ — - -

how they could reconcile female preaching with the doctrine
of St. Paul^ and they answered^ that a Christian man or woman
being one, the gift of the Spirit might be equally bestowed
on either sex, as on the day of Pentecost ; that it was the
practice of the primitive Church, and they quoted the example
of the daughters of Philip. Talleyrand, eager t3 revenge
himself on Alexander for his opposition in Vienna and again
in Paris, tried to undermine his influence by holding him up
to his friends as an object of ridicule for his attention to
Madame de Krudener, in whom the old diplomatist of sixty-one
seems to have thought there was still something fascinating ;
and following the good stories with which the ex-minister, who
went to hear her, entertained his convivial guests, her thin
grey locks have been transformed into luxuriant light hair.
He declared that Alexander clothed himself in sackcloth and
fasted according to her directions, whereas he kept the
numerous fasts strictly prescribed by the Greek Church, and
had observed them no less in 1814 than since he made her
acquaintance. Others chose to perceive some deep political
motive in their meetings. '^ He is too well informed and
able a man to be religious,'^ said one diplomatist, whom it is
to be hoped lived to see that the two might be combined.
Madame de Krudeuer is accused of having tried to gain him
by flattery. Her first conversation with him is a proof that ft
was no flattery which procured his confidence. His hope of
establishing a lasting peace was no novelty, but the constant
object of his policy, as it was formerly a dream of Paulas \ and
Madame de Krudener always denied having had anything to do <
.with the project of the treaty commonly known as the Holy
Alliance. Stein says she had no influence over the Emperor
in his managemeut of home aflairs, and he soon perceived she
was not suflBciently practical. '^ Your views," she wrote to him
after he left Paris, ''are great and noble, but you cannot effect
them yet; you ought only to think of regenerating yourself
to regenerate all around you. Everything will yet pass
through a great crisis. Germany, which bears in her the
germ of destruction, will be overturned ; the Turks will dis-
appear ; the English are not safe.'' Man was to stand by
and watch the coming storm and the rescue of the faithful,
taking no other part in averting it than constant prayer. Such *•

200 Alexander 8 Second Campaign i?i France,

—'— — »

course was very proper for a weak woman^ but Alexander was
aware that more was required from the autocrat of all the
Bussias. Among her companions in Paris was a girl brought
by Fontanes^ an Evangelical pastor^ who asserted that she
had ecstasies and revelations. Madame de Krudener took
Alexander to see her at a moment when she was said to be
inspired with the gift of prophecy. In her ecstasy, the girl
asked for money to found a Christian community in Weins-
burg. Alexander drew his conductor into another room, and
told her he knew enough of human frailty to be aware that
when piety took a mercenary form, it was rather to be sus-
pected, and he advised her to get rid of them both.*

In August, 1815, the Empress Elizabeth paid a short visit to
England, and Madame de Krudener wrote from Paris, August
7th, to her maid-of-honour : *^ Our Emperor's attitude ha»
been that of a Christian hero, which, with the aid of the All<*
Powerful, I dared to foresee and desire last year. Hi»
greatness strikes even the blind. His calm, simple life,
compared with the frivolous pleasures which make all ther
happiness of the world, is a magnificent study, which preacher
the long-forgotten Gospel to men. He works much, but in
the evening he comes often to see a person who is much
attached to you, and who lives not far from him. They like
him much here. The people constantly calji him by affectionate
names. Evil alone flies from him.^'t

The service at Madame de Krudener's wa« at seven p.m., but
except on one or two occasions, Alexander did not attend it,{
going there later, and leaving at midnight. But however late
he retired, he alivays rose not later than five a.m., and from seven

* Their ultimate career justified his opinion of them,
t On August 30th she wrote to the same correspondent : " He marches
in the wsiy of renunciation. I know each detail of his life. When he is
obli^d to go sometimes to the world, it is never to a play nor to a ball.*'
Both a French diplomatist and Mettemich did their best to draw him
away with the most attractive female society. " Yesterday the Duchesse
de Duras and Chateaubriand talked with me. We spoke of the chastise-
ments weighing on France, and I answered, when they spoke of the power
I have over some one, * That some one is only dust and an arm of flesh.
God directs me to tell him the truth. God inspires him with the love of
truth, but he can do nothing for France. This country can only make an
amende honorable, humiliatmff herself and asking ^ace at the foot of that
cross so long deserted, confessinff Christ aloud. I nave sinned also in the
middle of this Babylon. Let the King, the nobles, and the people alsa
Repent,' " Ac.
J The lively author of the Revelations of Prince Talleyrand has givoi^

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 201

to ten inspected his troops. He conducted the affairs of his
empire while abroad as well as at home^ and a large amount
of correspondence continually arrived from Russia^ to be
answered or revised. The winding up of the French treaty
necessitated constant interviews with the foreign ministers ;
but he refused all invitations, except once to dine respectively
with Lord Cathcart^ Lord Cnstlereagh,* and the Duke of
Wellington, though he received Talleyrand and the other
statesmen at dinner in his own quarters. Sir Walter Scott
met the Emperor at Lord Cathcart's, and again at a review,
where '^ the Russian infantry '' appeared to him '^ small men,
fine, firm, steady-looking, clean, handsome, and the appearance
of the Cossack proper was prepossessing.^' The Russians
were commanded by the Emperor to charge in line, it was
thought for the sake of taking down the pride of the English
military present, who looked upon it as a peculiarly British
manoeuvre, and they went through the movement remarkably
well. The chief part of the Russian army was encamped thi»
year in Champagne, and on September 11th it was
reviewed in the Plaine des Vertus, just before all but the
contingent of 40,000 men returned to Russia. An English
traveller describes their huts as most picturesque, and crowds
came from Paris to see the spectacle. Applications for orders
on the postmasters and hotels in the district had to be made
to the Emperor through his secretary, so that he supplied
Lady Castlereagh and her party, Madame de Krudener and
her firiends, and every one else who required a billet, with the
necessary note. One hundred and sixty thousand men were

the Prince's account of a visit in which the old diplomatist, to make a
^ood story, drew considerably on his imagination. He mentions meeting
m the street on his way there the plain " ^reen carriage and unpretend-
ing liveries of the Emperor Alexander," vmo, however, always walked ta
Madame de Krudener's through the garden of the Elys^e Palace, though
on that occasion he may have been on his road from another house. The
Emperor himself he describes as "dressed in black, with no mark of his
high rank save a glittering star of brilliants." The Kins of Prussia, " with
the most perfect nonchalance imaginable, was leaning back in his chair,"
for " at that time he never left Alexander's side, nor turned his gaze from
the autocratical countenance,** &c. Jung Stilling, he asserts, was present,
and calls him a new illuming, whereas for years he had been a preacher,
and was not then in Paris at all. Five hundred, he says, filled her
drawing-room, aud all knelt except himself, &c.

* Lady Brownlow met Alexander and his two younger brothers at
Lord Castlerea::h*s.

202 Alexander B Second Campaign in France.

reviewed and 300 guns discharged^ giving to the spectators a
rather alarming impression of the power of Russia. On the
12th there was a grand mass for the Emperor's f^tc. In one
tent assisted the Emperor of Russia and his three brothers^
the Emperor of Austria^ the Prince Royal, and one Archduke,
the King of Prussia and his two sons, a multitude of German
Princes, and Wellington, Schwartzenberg, Wrede, Platof, Bar-
clay de Tolly, and several other generals — a proof of the extreme
liberality and comprehensive nature of the doctrines of the Greek
Church, which permitted all shades of Christianity — Roman
Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Calvinists — to be alike
present at her most solemn service* Lamartine observes that
Alexander had not only extended, but during his sojourn in
Germany and Prance, " he had popularized Russia/' It waa
on his return from this service in the Plaine des Vertus that
he firat communicated his plan of a religious union between
the Princes of Europe. He was struck at Vienna and Paris
by the contempt with which any religious fervour was regarded
in society, and that even in London those who objected to
profane conversation were insultingly styled Methodists. He
hoped to undo, by a more open profession of his opinions, the
evil he felt he had tended to increase bv his former well-known
scepticism, and to induce his Allies to do the same, as if they
Lad not been quite so irreligious in their doctrines as Alex-
ander, their practice had been no better, and their people
required an example of faith in high quarters quite as much
as the Russians. Stein observes that '^ Alexander's religion
had so far a beneficial effect upon him, that it set bounds to
his natural violence and restless activity, which might other-
wise have grown very dangerous to Europe. Nesselrode,
Capo d'Istria, Fozzo di Borgo, and those around him were
glad to see it, and encouraged the Holy Alliance ; Capo d'Istria
hoped it might be turned to the advantage of Greece.''
^* This act,'' says Lamartine, " which the Liberal party for a
long time fancied was a mutual bond for the slavery of the

* " From this tent," writes Lady Brownlow, " to behold an immense
army of conquerors, who all at the same instant fell on their knees in
prayer and tnanksgiving, seemed more like a tale in the Arabian Nights
than an occurrence of real life. The magnificent dresses of the pnests
and the perfume of the incense were calculated to increase the illusion.
The music, entirely vocal, was beautiful."

Alexander s Second Campaic/n in France. 203

people^ was only in principle an act of faith in Providence
promulgated by a grateful prince after the freedom of the
Continent ; and to substitute morality and equity for arbitrary
dealing and force in the transactions between Sovereigns.
A project in fact hardly deserves the ridicule it received,
which secured peace between the Powers of Europe for forty
years — a peace followed by eighteen years of almost constant
war.

Castlereagh wrote to Lord Liverpool, Paris, September 28th :
'^ You will receive enclosed, an autograph letter from the three
Allied Sovereigns, addressed to the Prince Regent, which I have
been desired to transmit. To explain the nature of this rather
novel proceeding, I have obtained copies both of the letter and
its enclosure, deeming it material to accompany it with such
explanations as may assist his Royal Highness in making it
a suitable reply. I have to acquaint you that the measure
entirely originated with the Emperor of Russia, whose mind
has lately taken a deeply religious tinge. The first intimation
I had of this extraordinary act was from the Emperor him-
self, who said he had communicated that morning to the
Emperor of Austria his sentiments upon this subject, and he
would speak to mc further upon it in a few days. Prince
Mettcrnich the following day came to mc with the project
of the treaty, since signed. He told me in great confidence
the difficulty in which the Emperor of Austria felt himself
placed, that he felt great repugnance to be a party to such an
act, and yet was more apprehensive of refusing himself to the
Emperor's application; that it was quite clear his mind
was affected, that peace and goodwill was at present the idea
which engrossed his thoughts, that he had found him of late
friendly and reasonable on all points, and was unwilling to
thwart him in a conception which, however wild, might save
him and the rest of the world much trouble so long as it
should last. In short, seeing no retreat, after making some
verbal alterations, the Emperor of Austria agreed to sign it.
The Emperor of Russia then carried it to the King of Prussia,
who felt in the same manner, but came to the same con-
clusion. As soon ns the instrument was executed between
the Sovereigns, without the intervention of their ministers,
the Emperor brought it to mc, developed his whole plan of

'^ !

204 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France.

universal peace, and told me the three Sovereigns had agreed
to address a letter to the Prince Regent to invite him to
accede, of which intended letter his Imperial Majesty delivered
to me the enclosed copy. The Duke' of Wellington happened
to be with me when the Emperor called, and it was not
without diflSculty that we went through the interview with
becoming gravity. I examined, with Prince Metternich,
every possible expedient to stop it; but the Emperor of
Austria, with all his sobriety of mind, did not venture to risk
it. When it reached me, in fact, the deed was done, and no
other course remainced than to do homage to the sentiments
upon which it was founded, and to the advantage Europe
might hope to derive from three such powerful Sovereigns di-
recting all their influence to the preservation of peace, . . . that
I was confident the Prince Regent would unite heart and soul
with his august allies in making this the basis of all his policy,
and that I would lose no time in laying before his Royal
Highness this solemn pledge of the pacific and moderate spirit
which actuated their councils. I ventured to express my
satisfaction that the Sovereigns had not given to tliis instru-
ment an official character, that this might have rendered its
production as a State document necessary ; that it was better
it should pass as an autograph communication of sentiment
between Sovereign and Sovereign, binding upon their own
consciences in the general management of their affairs, than
that it should be exposed to public discussion as an act advised
by their ministers. I had, in truth, taken pains, through
Prince Metternich, to keep it, if it must go forward, in this
channel, foreseeing that as Wilberforce is not yet in possession
of the Great Seal, even if I receive the Prince's command to
countersign it, it might find some difficulty in passing through
the ordinary course of office. The fact is, that the Emperor's
mind is not completely sound. Last year there was but too
much reason to fear its impulse would be to conquest and
dominion. . . . He really appears to be in earnest. It is at all
events wise to profit by this disposition as far as it will carry
us, and this is peculiarly the feeling of Austria and Prussia.
1 am desired by the Emperor of Austria, through Metternich,
to express his earnest hope that the Prince will not refuse
this overture, however much he may feel with him the em-

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 205

barrassment of the proceedings that he thinks good may come
of indulging the Emperor, and that real danger might result
to the Alliance from a refusal. My own opinion very much
concurs with that ; and in weighing difficulties on both sides^
I think no person will blame the Prince for not refusing him-
self to a proposition so made to him^ where the objection lies
rather against the excessive excellence than the quality and
nature of the engagement ; but then I think the Prince must
take it upon himself, and sign it without the intervention of
his ministers^ as an autographic avowal of sentiments bct\ieen
him and the Sovereigns his allies, tending to preserve the
tranquillity of Europe. To decline doing so after a late explana-
tion, might produce very unpleasant consequences. The
Emperor told me that nothing had given him so much
satisfaction as to affix his signature to this bond of peace in
he believed the most irreligious capital in Europe. I confide
this communication to your management, and hope the Prince
Regent may find himself enabled to avert disturbing the
harmony which at present subsists between him and his
allies. — Castlbbbaqh /^*

Lord Liverpool in answer to this letter,t says he has laid
the treaty before the Prince Regent, and called a Cabinet to
discuss it, but wishes it could have been suppressed altogether.
He thinks that, though the Regent of Great Britain can be a
party to no act of State personally, as he only signs treaties
through his ministers, the Prince had better write an autograph
letter to the three Sovereigns, stating that he entirely concurs
in their views as to making the Christian religion the invari-
able rule of their conduct in all their relations, social and
political, &c.

The letter and treaty which troubled the English ministers
so much were composed and written out by Alexander.:!: The

• Wellington Despatches, &c., Supplement, voL x. f Ibid.

X "Sire, cub Oousix and Brotueb, —

" The events which ai&icted the world for more than twenty years have
convinced ns that the only means of putting an end to them is to be
found in the closest union between the Sovereigns whom Divine Provi-
dence has placed at the head of the nations of Europe. The history of
the Uiree last memorable years are ajproof of the happy effect this union
has produced for the safety of mankmd. But to assure to this bond the
solidity^ required by the greatness and purity of the end to which it tends,
it ouffht to be founded on the sacred principles of the Christian religion.
Deepy penetrated by this imx>ortant truth, we have signed the act we

206 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France.

last bound the contracting Powers to govern their people ac-
cording to the precepts of Holy Scripture, to consider all
Christian nations as one family, irrespective of a difference of
creed, to lend each other all necessary aid, and after acknow-
ledging the Divine source of all earthly glory, wisdom, and
success, made a formal avowal of the doctrines of the Catholic
Faith. At this period, so far from all Christians being regarded
as brothers, Dissenters from the Established Church laboured
under heavy civil disabilities in every European country except
Russia, and while the Allies occupied Paris, a serious rising^
against the Protestants took place in Provence. In England
Dissenters had no part in the legislature, and throughout the
war were all strong Bonapai*tists. *^ The Holy Alliance,^' writes
Count Munster,* '^ had great political importance/^ It was
a counter declaration to the decree establishing infidelity by"
the Republic of 1792. Alexander interpreted his own text r
that there were no such things as dynastic rights, that the
Sovereign was but delegated by Providence to promote the
good of his people; and nearly all his allies had verbally
promised him, and some in writing, that they would promote
liberal institutions among their people. How they kept that
promise belongs more to their history than to his, and he was
disappointed by the result of the Alliance. No Christian
compact could keep Metternich from crooked intrigues, and it
was fear of the power of Russia and of the revolutionists which
prevented another secret treaty against Alexander, quite as-
much as this League. However, it was joined by most of the
continental States, even by Louis, and it was agreed that the

submit to-day to the meditation of your Royal Highness. You will see its
object is to strengthen the ties uniting us in forming the people of
Christendom into one family, and in assuring to them, under the protec-
tion of the AU-Powerful, the happiness and safety of peace in the ties of
an indissoluble fraternity. We much regret that your Royal Highness
was not with us at the moment when we concluded this transaction. We
invite you as our first and most intimate ally to accede to it, and to com-
plete a work consecrated only to the welfare of humanity, and that we
ought in consequence to consider as the most splendid recompense of
our efforts. We repeat to your Royal Highness tne assurance of sincere
attachment and hiph esteem, with which we are your Royal Highness**
good brothers, cousms, and allies,

" Francis.

"Fbederick Willum.
" PnriB, September 14th (^Bth)." ^ " Alexaudeb.

* Political Recollections.

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 207

Sovereigns should meet periodically to consolt on the affairs of
Europe^ and settle any important matter on hand. The
Ultramontanes^ such as De Maistre, hailed it with delight^ as a
proof that the most powerful Sovereigns of Europe professed ^
the doctrines of Christianity ; (a proof certainly needed^) and
as a great bulwark against infidelity and republicanism. ^' The
writer," he says. " is the Emperor of Russia, who writes, as
you know, with as much ease as elegance. It is signed by no
minister. Some may laugh, others can think. A great reli-
gious revolution is imminent in Europe, and it is already
much advanced. This declaration is one phase of this revo*
lution ; soon doubtless it will become useless, but at this
moment it will produce much effect. The Eling of Prussia
at last perceives the moral dissolution of his country. There
is no longer a Prussian people, only an army and a military
democracy. He has entered this religious fraternity with
pleasure, for he feels his principal need.^^

'' The Emperor of Russia for some years has occupied him-
self much with religion, and the moderation and rectitude of his
ideas on this point are in my eyes a perfect prodigy, because
they belong to him exclusively, the education he received
pushed him quite in the other direction. If I am not de-
ceived, he wUl require at least all his dexterity to exercise at
home the religious supremacy belonging to him with the ,

measures circumstances exact. In fact, Russia knows nothing *>yWi>^'
of religion. The absolute i gnora nce of the Latin tongue
renders her a stranger to_all the sources of controversy. She
has much mind, but the greatest mind only knows what it has
learnt, and the Russian (I speak of laymen) has not yet
looked on this side."

Of course the Bonapartists and Republicans took a difierent
view* of a treaty calculated to strengthen their opponents,

* " The Liberals,*' writes Madame de Genlis, " angry and indignant at
the coalition of the Emperor of BuBsia and the Emperor of Austria with
the King of Prussia to prevent the overthrow of thrones and altars, have
for some time all joined in the same cry, that these Sovereigns wished for
nothing but to divide Europe between them, and that under the pretext
of maintaining peace, their object was to invade foreign States. An
instance of this ambition was seen in the reign of Napoleon. . . . Yet a
great many who make snch an outcry against the enterprise of the
Emperor of Russia, very far from disapproving of Napoleon's conduct,
served with sreat zeal and courage in the war against Spain, even after
2Tapoleon had carried off the royal family as prisoners, and made known

208 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in France.

and after Alexander's death, his old tutor, La Harpe, wrote a
• defence of the Holy Alliance for that especial faction, which
appeared in the Globe in 1828. He also intended it as a reply
to a book by the Pastor Empaytaz, who was introduced to
Alexander by Madame de Krudener at Heidelberg, and now
revealed the religious conversations between himself and the
Emperor. Words written down fourteen years after they
were spoken by an enthusiast, much elated at having talked
to a great Sovereign, are not wholly to be relied on, and
though a Lutheran pastor may not feel himself bound,
like a Greek or Latin Priest, to receive such confidences as
under the sacred seal of confession, yet there was a striking
absence of propriety, if not of honour, in publishing to the
world Alexander's uneasiness with regard to his brother
Constantine, and the prayers he offered up for his improve-
ment while Constantine was still living; and as both this
pastor and Madame de Krudener tended to bring the Alliance
into disrepute, by the exalted manner in which they boasted
of it to their followers. La Harpe, who was still a freethinker
and Ultra-liberal, tried to account for it while respecting the
memory of his pupil — whose real fault in the eyes of his enemies
was that he had shown himself stronger than Napoleon.
'^ Although intrepid in the midst of danger, Alexander had a
horror of war. Thoroughly aware of the abuses that excite
the discontent of nations, he hoped that during a lengthened
peace, the want of which was generally felt, the Government
of Europe, recognizing the importance of undertaking such
I'eforms as the necessities of the age called for, would seriously
apply themselves to the work. For this a state of profound
repose was indispensable, and as the confusion of the past

his intention of putting his brother Joseph on the throne. This is jurely
a strange kind of inconsistency. Did they not say when the ^Allies
entered France that their intention was to seize upon the provinces
allotted for their residence during the five years granted for the payment
of the expenses of the war P They said, sucii was iJie state of the finances
it was impossible to pay these enormous excuses, and therefore the Allies
would pay themselves by keeping the provinces and partitioning France.
Yet these sums were paid without burdening the people, and two years
and a half sooner than was agreed on, and the Auies returned home in
the most peaceful manner possible. This important business, so speedily
terminated, did not even prevent the Government from diminishiuff the
taxes. We must be both very ungrateful and very blind not to admire
fiuch things."

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 209

thirty years had greatly weakened the old ideas of allegiance
and subordination^ he thought he provided a remedy in a
solemn appeal to religion. At this period^ from north to
souths from east to west^ the eyes of the oppressed were turned
towards Alexander I. j but from this moment is to be dated
the conspiracy which secretly plotted to strip him of that
formidable moral power which gave him for auxiliaries every
friend of enlightenment and humanity^ the universal co-opera-
tion of honest men. Disposed by the natural moderation of
his character to consent to anything which might remove
fears of his preponderating influence^ and willing at any price
to dissipate the alarm feigned or fclt^ he consented to (or in
reality proposed) the establishment of a Court of Areopagus^
where a majority of votes should decide the measures to be
taken in common for the maintenance of the general tran-
quillity. The genius of evil quickly caught a glimpse of the
advantage he might reap from so generous an abrogation of
this preponderating influence. Thanks to the troublesome
and vexatious turn the members managed to give to the
progress of ordinary affairs^ the confidence of the nations was
impaired^ and the magnanimous monarch who had so well
deserved it, saw it lost amid the impudent acclamations of the
enemies to his glory, who did not hesitate to impute to his
obstinacy and absolute will the most unpopular measures
which they dictated in their Areopagus.'^ In short, U^^'^f*
Alexander instituted a constitutional government of the
universe.

One more opinion must be quoted before the subject is
closed — that of Napoleon, who, as if already transferred to
another sphere, was for nearly six years the critical spectator
of the progress of events in Europe, still hoping that a change
in the English Cabinet might some day enable him to share
in them once more. After speaking of his campaign in Russia,
and saying that if he could have dictated his own terms of
peace to Alexander it should have ended all his wars, he
added, with the egotism which adopted every plan he approved
as his own, " Satisfied on these great points, and quiet every- ^^

where, I should have also had my Congress and my Holy ^^f'
Alliance. They have stolen these ideas from me. In this
reunion of all the Sovereigns we might have treated of our

VOL. ITI. p

210 Alexander B Second Campaign in France.

interests as a family^ and made up our accounts with our
people/^*

Before Alexander left Paris, Madame Krudener tried to
plead the cause of her friend Hortense, whom she regarded as
a brand plucked from the fire. *' I frankly own/' he said, *' I
do not like women to busy themselves with politics, and am
disappointed with the Queen in this respect. After receiving
from the bounty of the King of Prance the permission to remain
in Paris, she ought not to have taken the active part she has
done in expelling him from the throne.^' " Of your bounty.
Sire/' " It matters little," he answered, " who she accepted
it from. She ought not to have remained in Paris on the return
of Napoleon.'^ The treaty of April having been broken by
Napoleon, its provisions respecting the maintenance of his
family were now set aside, except Partna, which Alexander
secured for Maria Louisa, and Bayreuth, which was disputed
between Prussia and Bavaria, for Eugene. But they had already
reaped such a rich harvest that they were still by no means
impoverished ; some of them emigrated to America, and others
went to live in Italy.

The Russian contingentf left in France was placed under
Count Voronzov, whose sister was married to the Earl of
Pembroke, and the Allies selected Wellington as the com-
mander of the whole force. The Prussians still felt them-
selves insufficiently revenged; aud before quitting Paris
Alexander assembled several Prussian officers, including
Gneisenau, and speaking to them as to his brothers-in-arms,
he tried to calm their angry feelings, and ended by telling
them that, while bearing the name of Christians, they could
hardly desire to imitate the conduct of those who had been a
disgrace to civilization in the mode in which they comported
themselves towards Prussia. "Give them," he said, ''the

* M^moires de Ste. Hel^ne. Par Las Casea.
t It appears from the Duke of Wellington's correspondence that the
rations then supplied to the Russian pnvate soldier was 3 lbs. of bread
a day, salt, and some flonr to make quass. In hospital they were even
better treated than the English, as appears from the payment made to
the French Government for the soldiers of each of the aUied armies, which
was fixed. according to the treatment followed by each: for an English
soldier, 2 francs 25 centimes a day ; for a Eussian, 2 francs 45 centimes ;
for a Prussian, 2 francs 55 centimes; for an Austrian, 2 francs 20 cen-
times; &c.

Alexander B Second Campaign in France. 211

example of pardon ; this is the only Christian revenge/' He

left them^ for the time at leasts pacifically disposed. He set

off for Brussels to see the King of Holland on September

27th, and was conducted over the field of Waterloo by

the whole royal family and the Princes of Prussia. He

returned to France to inspect his army once more, and

reviewed the Austrian contingent at Dijon, being presented

by Louis with thirty-four decorations of the Order of St.

Louis to distribute among his officers. From Dijon he went

to Zurich and Munich, where he saw the Empress, and then

straight to Serlin, arriving there October 24th. He had not

stayed a night in this city or in Potsdam since, full of youth

and hope, he had rested on his way to Austerlitzj and,

though he had now realized all the aspirations then premature,

and had conquered a permanent peace, the little elation he

showed at his victories convinced every one that he thought

the results hardly worth the cost. His visit to the capital of

his aUy was to cahn the anger of the young mUitary against

him on account of Lorraine and Alsace. They piqued

themselves on their battles at Ligny and Waterloo, and

pretended that these alone achieved Napoleon's fall ; ignoring

the. sanguinary campaign (because the army under Slucher

was half composed of Russians) which had so completely

broken Napoleon's power that his last struggle, even if he

had conquered at Waterloo, could have been nothing but a

prolonged death. There was also rivalry between the Prussian

military and their own Government. Every officer, including

Blucher, belonged to a secret society, which the ministers

regarded with suspicion ; and Alexander was now anxious to

induce the King to fulfil his promise of religious toleration

and a representative Government to satisfy the country

and occupy these restless spirits. The King hesitated, half

undertook to do so, and ended by yielding to Hardenberg,

and rewarding their aspirations by a prison, and obliging

many of his non-conforming subjects to quit Prussia. The

King of Holland and the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar and Baden

were more complaisant, and agreed to Alexander's demand of

a constitutional Government.

The Emperor was joined in Berlin by his sisters Mary and
Catherine, beside Nicholas and Michael. At a royal banquet

p2

212 Alexander 8 Second Campaign in 'France.

the King proclaimed the engagement between his eldest
daughter and ''the brother of his most faithful ally and
friend/^ Slucher and Barclay sat among the princes^ and all
drank the health of the young pair. The Princess Charlotte*
had been the support of her father^ and had presided over the
palace since her mother's deaths and was more fitted than the
shy and retiring Elizabeth to fill the place of an Imperial
bride ; but there is no reason to suppose that the King was
only persuaded to allow his daughter to change her name and
form of creed by its being intimated to him that Nicholas
was destined to be Alexander's heir. The Emperor was
thirty-seven, Constantine thirty-six, and though present
appearances were in favour of Nicholas being ultimately an
Emperor, still either of them might marry again and leave a
son. The King could not refuse his daughter to Alexander's
brother any more than Francis of Austria could refuse to
sign the Holy Alliance ; besides, the young princess was much
struck with her youthful bridegroom, and his character gave
her every chance of matrimonial happiness.

Alexander spoke to one of her relations on his brother's
good fortune in marrying a princess whom he had chosen
himself, and whose heart he had gained. ''They will be a
happy couple," he said, " and I rejoice at the event. My
fate was different. My marriage was settled when I was a
mere stripling, and scarcely knew what a solemn act it was,
and before I had ever seriously thought of such an affair.
Indeed, though I was joined to a beautiful and amiable
princess, she had not captivated my heart. I had not selected
her as my companion for life — that was my grandmother's
business, and no doubt Catherine had good political reasons
for her conduct ; but the Empress and myself have been the
sacrifice."

The next day the Princess took her future husband with the
Emperor to see the mausoleum at Charlottenburg, containing
her mother's tomb ; and in the evening Alexander pursued his
journey to Warsaw to make his first entry into the city as King
of Poland.

Lord Walpole writes from St. Petersburg to Lord Castle-
reagb, September 11th, "The Emperor's continued absence
* She was goddaughter to Queen Charlotte of England.

Alexanders Second Campaign in France. 218

has occasioned a more painfal impression than any I have evar
before observed/' In November, " Everybody is much dis-
contented, and the Guards want another foreign war for the
sake of crosses, decorations/' &c.* De Maistre writes : '' The
Emperor is looked for like rain after an African summer : one
must live in Russia to know what he is for her ; his name is a
constitution, and who knows if she could have a better ? Poland
counts on hers, and Russia, without exception, cannot bear the
idea. The new Polish armorial bearings are the eagle of
Russia surmounted by the eagle of Poland. Even this is criti-
cised, though every Russian province bears its private arms
above that of Russia. The Poles ought to learn to marry before
anything else (alluding to the facility with which divorces were
obtained in Poland). They are not aware that a people who play
at marriage is unconstitutionable.'' September 26th, 1815 :
*' They are very impatient at the absence of the Sovereign, but I
should be curious to know how the same men who admire
Peter I. in the dockyards at Zaandam can refuse the same feel-
ing to Alexander I., occupied with much more essential
things than cutting planks and striking nails. The Emperor
must necessarily meet on his road a crowd of European ideas
which would not come to seek him. ... In no other country
of 40,000,000 would it be possible for a Sovereign to remain
away two years, and no disturbance in his absence. . . . He
who demands the freedom of the serfe in Russia, asks for the
division of the empire. ... In Russia we are in the 16th
century.f The religious movement agitating Europe has reached
her, and gives alarm. In this state of things the Bible Society
cast its toils into Russia. ... A colony offered itself, and
was immediately accepted, for the Russian is fonder of novel-
ties than the Frenchman of the old regime, with whom he has
much in common, and among the number of very respectable
members (of the Bible Society) we find the Russian and Roman
Catholic Archbishops. They are there like two courtiers, be-

• Lord Liverpool, writing October 2nd, to the Dnke of ■Wellington,
says : " I trast Lord CasUereagli will be able to bring our negotiations to
a satisfactory conclusion ; and if the Em])eror of Rnssia acta npon the
advice of the military council, and halts ms army, I have little aonbt of
it. On the other hand, the departure of the Sovereigns from Paris and
the march of the Russian army across the Rhine will, I fear, prevent
matters being settled without another conflict."

t '* Science arrives, and takes Religion by the collar."

214 Alexander a Second Campaign in France.

cause they imagine the Society is agreeable to the master.
Yet it is evidently only a means for overturning the whole
ecclesiastical establishment.'^ The Anglican Church is alarmed,
and some of its bishops have attacked the society. Here they
dread no danger. Catholicism plays its part in this general
movement^ they reprove its natural proselytism. Prince A.
Galitzin (the Minister of Religion) is much alarmed. This
minister is a very good subject of the Emperor, of a very estima-
ble character. I am curious to know how Alexander's wisdom,
enlightened by all he has seen, will unravel these different
interests. Foreigners have done Russia much harm, have sold
her poison, have calumniated her, seduced, or insulted her. . . .
Those in this country who hate Roman Catholics have no fear
of Protestants. Prince Galitzin watches the Jesuits keenly,
and only awaits the arrival of the Emperor to procure some
rigorous measure. . .. . The State already contains forty
sects, some absurd, others guilty, all fanatical and obstinate.
Protestants on one side and Raskolniks on the other, are two
files which saw the religion of the country at each end, and
they must soon meet. It is sadly amusing to see the Bible
Society propagated and sustained in a country where the ex-
travagant interpretation of some text of the Holy Scriptures
in the vulgar tongue produced a mad and dangerous tribe of
Dissenters. ... The praises I hear from Prance of the Rus-
sians and their Sovereign give me extreme pleasure, but the
eye of the father of the family is wanted here.'' The '^ na-
tural proselytism" of the Roman Catholic Church had been
carried so far as to cause a panic during the Emperor's
absence, and conversions were daily coming to light, having
been kept secret for many years by the advice of the
Jesuit confessors. As early as 1806 the Countess Rostop-
chine, unknown to her husband, entered the communion of the
Roman Church ; as the Count said years afterwards, it was the
only trouble she ever gave him. The Roman cur^ dined at
his house once a week in Moscow, lent her books, and in the
end received her into his Church ; counselling her not to
divulge it, and bringing her every Sunday a portion of the
consecrated Host when he came to accept her husband's hos-
pitality. Her sisters, the Princess Galitzin, the Countess

* Aleo Sainte-Maiure*

Alexander's Second Campaign in France. 215

^^■~~ — -

Tolstoi^ and the Countess Protaasovj who^ like herself^ had been
brought up in ignorance of the first principles of religion in
the midst of Catherine's Courts were all converted some years
later^ and during a long time the Countess Vassiltchikov con-
cealed her own change of creed from her family^ but went
early every morning unknown to them aU to hear mass, and
returned in time to join them at breakfast. Madame Svet-
chine had also just declared herself a Romanist ; and the same
year a nephew of the Minister of Religion, a boy of sixteen, was
converted by his tutor, a Jesuit priest. The Russian Council of
State was excited by a rumour that a Jesuit priest, who was
fm oculist employed by the Empress Dowager, had taken the
opportunity to tamper with her faith. They were pleased at
the prospect of a marriage with a country so strictly Protestant
as Prussia. That of the Grand Duchess Catherine was vexa-
tious to her Imperial mother. Lord Walpole writes that
she " is much displeased : she can neither stomach the former
divorce of the proposed bridegroom, nor the idea of the arrange-
ment having been made without reference to her.'' The Dutch
alliance was approved, as it would constitute a Russian outpost
in the Netherlands, a barrier between Austria and England^
and a tower of observation on the future designs of France.

Alexander received the news at Berlin of the almost total
destruction of the old Tartar town of Kazan by fire, 1500
houses and eighteen churches being destroyed. '' It is
thought," writes De Maistre, " that it is the work of incendi-
aries. Some suspect Dissenters, others serfs. . . . Three
days afterwards another terrible fire : one merchant lost
100,000 roubles in sugar. It is certain that Russia contains
incendiaries."

The Republicans tried to excite sympathy for Napoleon by
saying that, far from being allowed the luxuries to which he
had accustomed himself, he was almost without the necessaries
of life. This assertion is disproved by a mere list of the
goods sent on board the vessel that accompanied him to St.
Helena for his especial comfort, and by the account of the
fitting up of his cabin ^from uninterested observers. He was
allowed an income of 10,000/., more than any English
Grovemor except the Viceroy of India, and his establishment
in the island consisted of about fifty persons. Alexander

216 Alexander B Second Campaign in France.

nominated M. Balmeine as his commissioner to St. Helena^
and this gentleman stated when he arrived there that it wasr
the Emperor's wish Napoleon shonld be treated as well as
circumstances would admits and he never found reason to send
home any complaint. An English newspaper of December^
1815, says: ^^The Prince Kegent is not the only one who
wished to render the ex-Emperor comfortable ; for, about the
middle of November, Baron Stumert, a Russian nobleman,
landed at Brighton, bringing with him fifty large packing*'
cases containing presents from the Emperor of Russia to his
ci'devant Imperial brother. They were immediately forwarded
to Portsmouth, to be shipped for St, Helena.''

CHAPTER V.
1815—1818.

RUSSIA AT PEACF.
JETAT. 37 — 40.

AS soon as it was decided at the Congress that two districtar
of Poland were to be held by Austria and Prussia^ Alex-
ander required a national organization to be conferred on
them, so as not to amalgamate them with Germany, and
Castlereagh gave this measure his cordial support; but the
affairs of the Congress were hurried to a conclusion on
Napoleon's return to France, and Austria and Prussia de-
layed binding themselves to anything concerning the Poles
till Alexander left Vienna, and then evaded it altogether
when the treaty was finally signed in June. Cracow was
formed into a republic, much to the annoyance of Austria ;
and Alexander ordered Czartoriski to repair to Warsaw to
inaugurate the new regime. He sent him an autograph note
with instructions (May 25th) ; and a month later the kingdom
of Poland, under the protection of Russia, was proclaimed.
Everything went off weU, and ten days afterwards Czartoriski
wrote that " The public spirit is good, and becomes better every
day. The Russian and Polish Guards have treated each other ;
the greatest harmony exists among them. Monseigneur the
Grand Duke cements it with much amiability, and appears to
satisfy the troops.^' In a second letter, on the 29th, he begins
to find fault with Constantine for '* speaking jeeringly of the
constitution, and covering everything Polish with ridicule.
Some of those about him encourage his gloomy and hasty
temper. The Grand Duke wishes to accompany the Russian
army to Paris, and complains much of being obliged to remain
in Warsaw," and he imagines that a large number of the Russian
military are resolved to destroy Poland, and make use of him

^ 1

21 S Russia at Peace,

as their instrument. Constantine was summoned to attend
his brother in Paris^ and at the same time the Provisional
Government of Poland sent Count Potocki to claim from
France the sums she had borrowed from Warsaw. Czartoriski
complained to Alexander that the treaty of Vienna left Poland
involved in debts — debts contracted by the French to enable
them to carry on the campaign in Russia. It was curious to
bring these forward as a complaint to Alexander^ but Poland
seemed to think she ought to reap nothing but advantage^ even
when she had chosen the losing side as her ally. It was a
hard task for any administration to make itself popular in a
country laid waste and drained of its resources like Poland in
1812; and the new Government suffered the odium of the
poverty which others had inflicted^ as the present Government
of France has to bear the burden imposed upon her by the
wars of the Second Empire. Throughout the year 1815 the
SussitgsL employes were gradually withdrawn from Poland and
furnished ^vith posts elsewhere^ and the Polish Constitution
of 1791 was by degrees brought into force.

This constitutional charter placed supreme power in the
hands of the King^ and no Sovereign in his senses^ looking
back at the history of Poland^ could have proposed to super-
intend her government on any other basis. He was assisted
and controlled by two chambers^ the Senate and the Diet.
The direction of the affairs of the kingdom was confided to a
council in the absence of the monarchy which was composed of
five ministers appointed by the King and the Lieutenant-Grover-
nor. The bishops^ voyvodes, and chatelains, named for life by
the King, formed the Senate. The Diet was composed of the
deputies of the nobility and the Commons^ and was to be con-
voked for a month in every year. Every new law must be adopted
by the majority in the two chambers^ and receive the sanction
of the Sovereign. The examination of the budget and public
expenses belonged to the chambers, and the revenue was to be
exclusively devoted to the maintenance of an independent
Polish army and the payment of the Government officials.
The press was free ; the nobility had the right of electing its
own marshals, and a municipality was established in every
town. Alexander was careful to confide the direction of

Russia at Peace. 219

affairs to men nrhose thoroughly Polish character and abilities
presented sufiScient guarantees to the national susceptibilities.
He offered either the Viceroyalty or the command of the
Polish army to Kosciusko, but the old patriot refused both.
On his visit to Warsaw he conferred the Lieutenancy of the
Polish kingdom on General Zaiconzek, an old Polish soldier
grown grey in battle, and whose heart and hand, from
Kosciusko to Napoleon, never loved and served any other
cause than that of Poland. He told the Emperor he was too
poor to accept this rank. " It is only one merit more in my
eyes,'' said Alexander, who assigned him a revenue of 200,000
Polish florins, and later created him a prince. The ministers
were equally chosen from among the Poles who had assisted
in the government of the Duchy of Warsaw; and Constantinen
commanding the Polish army, and the relative and former col- •
league of Czartoriski, Novossilzof, were the only representatives \
of Russia. Constantine was always popular among the oDmmoi);_\
soldiers, whom he protected from the oppression or dishonesty
of their officers ; for peculation was as great a stumbling-block
in Poland as in Russia. It was decided,, after a consultation
with Czartoriski and the chiefs of the Poles, that the Diet
Bhould not be called together for three years, that the country
might have time to settle down after its long wars, and the
landowners to restore their fortunes and attend to their estates.
Constantine, though commander of the army, was subject to
the civil power, and as Alexander was at that time still hopeful \z.
of bequeathing a constitution to his own empire, but knew |
how distasteful such a government was to his heir, he thought
it would accustom him to limited authority, and even give him
A predilection for a constitution if he saw the benefits accruing
from it to Poland; but the event proved there were not suffi-
cient men of education among the Poles to offer constitutional
monarchy a fair chance of success, even if the Polish nobility
had sincerely striven to assist the union between Poland and
Russia.

Alexander arrived in Warsaw November 10th, and appeared
in a Polish uniform, with the order of the White Eagle, which
he had re-established. " The Poles exhausted demonstrations
of respect, joy, and attachment,'' writes De Maistre. " They

220 Buma at Peace.

erected a triamplial arch^ beaming on one side this verse of
Horace-
Hie ames dici pater, atque princeps ;

on the other from Virgil —

Ezpectate veni sacra suosque tibi commendat. Troja penates.

The Emperor perfectly knows the Russian prejudice against
Poland and its political existence^ which could not be carried
further/^ All the streets and windows were decorated ; but
he refused to receive the keys from the magistrates^ as he did
not come as a conqueror^ but as a friend, and in that quality
accepted instead the usual municipal gift of bread and salt.
He was touched with the unexpected enthusiasm they dis-
played, believing it was only necessity which had made them
accept him as their King, and that they would still have pre-
ferred Napoleon. The next morning he held a levee, in which
he received deputations from various provincial towns. The
Palatine Malachowski expressed in the name of his country-'
men their love, veneration, and gratitude for the noble con-
queror who had given them a new political existence. In
memory of so happy a day they had provided for a certain
number of indigent labouring families. Alexander answered :
'' I receive with gratitude the expression of your sentiments
/tx>wards me. I know this country has supported great reverses,
but I hope the traces of them may shortly be effaced: to
relieve it speedily I have given orders to the Russian armies
[. to retire. You could not possibly have done anything more
agreeable to me than to occupy yourselves with the agri-
1 culturists, and everything you undertake in that respect will
'. excite my liveliest interest. I shall be always ready to receive
every request presented to me, either by the deputies from
the districts or by private people. I shall be informed of
your wishes by persons appointed for the purpose, and 1 will
give all my attention to them. I have no other object with
regard to you than the prosperity of your country, and the
\ happiness of its inhabitants.^' The fundamental principles of
. the constitution, in thirty-seven articles, were published. The
i Emperor's successor was to be crowned at Warsaw, but, rather
to the disappointment of the Poles, he dispensed with the cere-
mony for himself. He left them filled with loyal enthusiasm.

^

Russia at Peace. 221

and at Vilna Count Oginski received him at the head of a
deputation^ and in a long speech spoke of the rapidity of his
victories^ comparing them to an eaglets flighty at which the
Emperor was thought to look rather contemptuously; but
when he talked of the gratitude of the Lithuanians and their
sufferings^ the tears stood in his eyes. He visited his old
acquaintances round Vilna, and in conversation with them
seemed pleased with Warsaw, but said it was easy to see that
the Grand Duchy had suffered much, and required great care
and a paternal administration. The Countess Choiseul-
GouflSer asked if it was true that he liked London better than
Paris. He liked the society better : " The French were in
general frivolous and grasping." " The French at least have the
merit of appreciating your Majesty's goodness towards them,''
she answered. " I assure you, madam," he said, reddening,
'^ I have only done my duty ; the right of reprisals has always
seemed frightful to me." He turned the subject, and spoke
of the splendid English parks, where art consisted in develop-
ing Nature, and the wisdom of the constitutional institutions
of Great Britain.

''Since December 1st," writes De Maistre, ''we have seen
arrive in turn at St. Petersburg, the Grand Duchess Catherine,
the Grand Duchess of Saxe- Weimar and her husband, the
Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, and lastly her Majesty
the reigning Empress returned after all the rest on the 12th:
The next day, the 18th (n.s.), the great soul returned into its
great body — the Emperor arrived towards eleven p.m. After
a short service at the Kazan church, he went to the Empress,
his august spouse. Both are gone together to the Empress-
mother's, and have returned again together. The Emperor,
who only slept two hours, was before eight in his sledge : he
has seen the exercising house, the parade, &e., and has gone
to see the President of the State Council, who is unwell ; he
received the Metropolitan at ten a.m. — in short, he returns to
his usual course with a perfect precision ; he has seized the
reins again, and they were rather wavering, with much grace
and vigour. Russia must gain much by her master's brilliant
absence. However, there is a dissenting voice on this subject,
for, as elsewhere, a detracting spirit exists which refuses to
admire, and even blames what others admire. The fear and hope

222 Ruma at Peace.

agitating the face of every great person in the State is a curious
spectacle. No one knows if he deserves favour or blame. We hear
whom theEmperor has spoken to first; they tell us he has talked
eight hours and three minutes to another j they can inform
you of the exact number of syllables he addressed to each,
and what expression he wore> &c. . . . Yesterday he went ta
bed at three A.M.^rose at six^ and visited all the military hospitals.
So active a mind would be useless if it did not command an
iron body.'' " I fancy,*' writes Lord Cathcart from St. Peters-
burg, December 28th, ^^ that a morefcomplicated or laborious
task,* never presented itseK to any Sovereign than that now
before the Emperor. Some irregularities to a serious amount
have, it is said, been discovered in Volhynia, and occasioned
charges of a criminal nature against the governor, which are
to be examined by a special commission. The ener^ with
which this matter has been taken up is thought to forebode
very strict investigations in other quarters.''
* But the question most warmly pressed on the Emperor was
the expulsion of the Jesuits, who were not only accused of
making numerous conversions, but of having publicly declared
that ^' the Roman Church is the only one true and sure
religion for salvation." No clergy in the world were more
tolerant than those of Russia, but this was naturally more
than they could support when added to the wavering faith of
the Empress-mother, whose family were Romanists ; and they
appealed to the Emperor, as the head and sworn protector of
orthodoxy, to check the mischievous intrigues which had taken
advantage of liis absence to undermine the foundations of
Eastern Catholicism. Prince Galitzin, the liberal protector
of the Bible Society, which was warmly denounced by the
Jesuits as well as censured by a Papal bull, and his rival the
fanatical Aratchaief, were both agreed in urging their master
to take some strong measure against them, and this was not
long delayed. On January 2nd, a ukaz appeared banishing
them from St. Petersburg. '* They have turned from our
faith," it ran, " young men intrusted to them for education,
and some persons of the weaker 8ex."t De Maistre wrote

• Also De Maistre.
t It ran thus in the origrinal Russian, but was badly translated, " Some
women of a weak and inconsequent spirit."

Russia at Peace. £23^

five letters in their defence some years before to Count Razou-
movsky^ and he now declared it would be as impossible to
preserve the Russian religion in the midst of its numerous
enemies^ as a statue of wax in a volcanic crater. '^ Those
even/' he says. ^' who read the Emperor's ukaz^ will find
something to praise. He was angry with the Order, every
line proves it ; but instead of expelling them from his States,
he limits himself to forbidding them the two capitals. Of all
European princes he is the one who has had the strongest
prejudic(?s against the Jesuits, and he has let these fiithers
quietly remain here during fourteen years, only from mistrust
of his own opinion. He may wish to calm excited heads by
giving them satisfaction. No minister, no magistrate, no
accuser, no advocate appeared in the matter. They were provided
with pelisses and warm boots of a very good quality, and sent
off in comfortable covered carriages. . . . Who will dare to tell
the truth to him who can do everything, and who has never
heard it ? People well informed pretend that the Emperor,
disgusted by the religious scandals he saw at Vienna, has
come home strongly prejudiced. In one sense this Prince is
right, for there is unfortunately nothing so real as these
scandals. But he needs a courageous minister by his side,
able to say to him, ' You imagine. Sire, that you see Catho-
licism here — ^you only see the absence of it. You see the
works of Joseph II. With the impetuosity of a young, in-
experienced man, he sapped the power of the Pontiff in his
own dominions. You see the result of it. Sire. There is no
more religion at Vienna than there is at (Geneva, and than
there will be soon with you when certain powers you are not
aware of shall have come to their full development.' "

The Jesuits had one bold advocate in their new convert,
Madame Svetchine, who, directly she heard of their in-
tended banishment, took advantage of the favour the Emperor
had shown her since his return, to speak to him on their behalf.
Her husband refused to re-enter the public service after
Alexander's accession till troubles threatened the empire in
181 1 : he had numerous enemies among influential men, but
in 1812 his wife took a prominent part in the society for the
relief of the sick and wounded, which was alone a passport to
her Sovereign's goodwill. '' I was much touched," she writes

224 Russia at Peace.

to Mdlle. Stourdza at Vienna, ^' by what you tell me of M.

de B (the Emperor) relative to me. I believed I was

more than effaced from his recollection/' As soon as he re*
turned in 1815 he called upon her, and she afterwards received
invitations to the palace. Her religious enthusiasm interested
him ; and when he wished for relaxation from his State duties
or his own thoughts, he found it in her amusing conversation.
Her husband's enemies took alarm. Aratchaief was devoted
to the Emperor, but his jealousy of any one else who received
the least attention from him equalled that of a disappointed
lover j and those who advised the expulsion of the Jesuits were
uneasy lest Madame Svetchine should turn him into a
Bomanist. These fears shaped themselves into a plot against
the general, who was too proud either to complain or to justify
himself, but resigned his post, and retired to France. The
matter was never explained to Alexander, who expressed much
sorrow to Madame Svetchine at this abrupt resolve ; and when
they left Russia he asked her to write to him, which she did till
his death, when her letters were restored to her by. Nicholas.

Mdlle. Stourdza,* married to Count Edling, went to live on
her paternal estate in 1818. Her brother published a book in
Russia and at Stuttgart, for which Alexander gave him 20,000
roubles, entitled '' Considerations on the Doctrine and Spirit
of the Orthodox Church.'' It was answered by the Jesuit
father, Rosaven, in 1824, with a volume entitled " The Catho-
lic Church Vindicated." In 1823 Alexander conceded a large
tract of barren territory between the Dnieper and the Dniester
to the Countess Edling, as it bordered on her property in
Bessarabia, where she carried on the active work of a mis-

• " Our Emperor," she wrote to Jung Stilling in 1816, " continues to
walk in the ways of the Lord. He leads a very retired and veiy exemplary
life, and endures with patience the thorns with which his crown is en-
twined. Of his difficultieH you cannot form an idea. My brother labours
much for the service of the Emperor, but he labours also for Grod. The
unhappy events which have troubled so many souls here by means of the
Jesuits induced him to write a book upon our Eastern Church, which
proves, I hope, in a triumphant manner that we have remained attached
as scrupulously as possible to the primitive church, while the Catholics
have removed far from it." She goes on to relate an account she has re-
ceived from a nun returned from Jerusalem of the sufferings of the native
Christians, and disputes between the Greeks and Latins. The Russian
missionaries had been very successful amon^ the tribes in the Caucasus.
The Emperor had assigned funds for the maintenance of twelve churches,
and of tne priests commissioned to minister in them.

Buwia at Peace. 225

fiionaiy among the Mahometans. With the aid of her husband
she established a fruitful colony, called Mansir^ covered with
Tillages and well-cultivated fields ; and besides aiding in the
extension of Christianity among the natives — ^an idea she had
contemplated from her childhood — it became a refuge to the
Greek population who were flying from the tyranny of the
Turkish Empire.

Alexander sent an edict to the Holy Synod (28rd February,
1816), pointing out the desirability of translating the Bible
into modern Russian. Many of the archbishops agreed, or did
not venture to differ from him ; and copies were bought up so
eagerly, even by the Russian Dissenters, that the receipts ex-
ceeded the expenditure. The Pope was powerless in Russia
itself, but he could not remain quiet and see one of the grand
principles of the Roman Catholic Church overturned, and the
Bible not only translated into a language understood by all
the people, but delivered without any restriction into their
hands. He tried to excite a religious ferment among the
Poles, and directed an extraordinary bull to the primate of
Poland, complaining of the Bible Society. '' We are shocked
by this most crafty device, by which the foundation of our re-
ligion is undermined.'' He went on to declare that, '' to
remedy this pestilence, this defilement of the faith, so danger-
ous to souls,'' &c. The most prejudiced must allow that
the head of the Latin Church yielded the palm in enlighten-
ment to the head of the Eastern Communion, when this bull
is compared with the letter Alexander wrote to the governor
of Cherson on December 9th, 1816. The Governor had ob-
jected to a sect called the Duchobortzi, who opposed war and
social distinctions, but were an industrious and well-conducted
people. " Prom reports," said the Emperor, '* sent to the
Minister of Police, I observe you desire to have them removed,
owing to rumours of their alleged wicked lives, anti-social
principles, and efforts to propagate the same. The Duchobortzi
have sent petitions praying for protection from oppression, and
I have ordered the Minister to correspond with you; but at
the same time I wish to remind you of their original removal
from the Ukraine to the Melitopol district of the Taurian
government, which was by my express orders given to Mikla-
shefsky, then governor of New Russia (January 26th, 1802)^

VOL. III. Q

226 Buma at Peace.

on account of the miseries they had suffered^ and to protect
them &om improper and fruitless seyerities. They are suffi-
ciently separated from intercourse with the rest of the nation^
which puts a stop to their extension. For several years the
.Government has received no complaints from any quarter re-
specting disorders among them^ and it has therefore reason to
believe the measures already adopted adequate. The secession
of this people is decidedly an error grounded on certain false
opinions from a want of cultivation^ for they have a zeal for
the Almighty^ though not according to knowledge ; but does
it become an enlightened Christian government to try to bring
back stray sheep into the bosom of the Church by oppressive
means ? The doctrine of the Saviour of the worlds who ap-
peared on earth to seek and to save that which was lost^ can
never be instilled into men by force and oppression^ and can
never justify the infliction of temporal rain on him whom it
seeks to bring into the way of truth. True faith is produced
by the grace of God through conviction^ instruction^ forbear-
ajice — ^and, above all^ good example. .Severity does not con-
vince^ but harden. The harsh measures exhausted upon the
Duchobortzi during the thirty years preceding 1801^ instead of
rooting out this sect^ much increased it. . . . Their separation
^m the Orthodox Church was then the only complaint
against them : if again removed they would be punished owing
to a mere report^ without the truth of the accusation being
proved — a course contrary to law. . . . This colony I commit
to your own immediate inspection and care^ not trusting to
the reports of any one : examine impartially into all the cir«
cumstances of the case yourself^ inquire into their mode of Hfe^
viewing them with the eye of a benevolent roler. All ought
to fed they live under the security and protection of the
laws. Should you even discover that some of the Colonists
conceal deserters^ or try to seduce others firom the National
Church into their own way of thinkings then turn the force of
the law against such acts only as are contrary to it^ and thereby
put a stop to the evil. But for the sake of one^ or even several'^
offenders^ the settlers who had no part in them should not be
involved. On occasions of this kind^ when accusations are
sent in^ an attentive inquiry is necessary to find by whom such
accusations are made, and their probable motive. Thus the

Buma at Peace, 227

two Duchobortzi yon mention, who on returning to the Church
accused the Society of various crimes, may have done it out of
anger or revenge, for they may have been excluded from the
Society for bad conduct, or left it on account of some quarrel.
The mere accusations of such persons hardly deserves attention,
and ought never to serve as the foundation of an imprisonment
or other persecution of people not yet convicted. Even the
very examination into a suspected offence should be conducted
in such a way that the innocent can on no occasion suffer
from it. You wiU not fail to conform punctually to these
directions, and in the mean time report to me fully concerning
your measures and discoveries," &c. — " Alexander/'

When the Emperor returned to St. Petersburg he found a
Persian ambassador waiting to see him, with presents from the
Shah, to induce him to restore the two provinces ceded by
Persia to Russia in 1813. During the French invasion an
emissary was despatched to Teheran to make a favourable
treaty, and Sir Gore Ouseley arrived from India, by order of
the British Government, to counteract the intrigues of the
French and obtain the same end. The Shah Abbas Mirza
was resolved to make another expedition into Georgia, and
wrest it from Russia before he would talk of peace, being also
persuaded that the Czar would be conquered by his ally of
France ; but the Persians being completely defeated, the Shah,
alarmed for his own safety, agreed to the original terms, the
ce$.^ion of a district bordering on the Caspian Sea, which cut
off the Persian access to the north of the Caucasus. Accord-
ing to Dr. Lyall, then in St. Petersburg, the ambassador was
by no means conciliatory, but showed dislike of the Russians
and partiality for the English. He brought three elephants
dressed in black, and red leather boots to protect their feet
from the snow, with some horses and Persian manufactured
goods. Alexander received him at a Court ball on his birth-
day, when supper was laid for 800 people. *' The Emperor
much dislikes ceremony,'' writes Pe Maistre, '' and receiving
ambassadors officially in imperial pomp. He took the Persian
ambassador into a small room," where they had almost a
t^-2utdte; and the Persian afterwards supped with the
diplomatic corps at the imperial table, which was shaded
with orange trees; ''and the exactness, the quickness, the

q2

228 Buma at Peace.

punctualiiy of the seryants^ excites all my admiration in the
middle of such a crowd." In the following May " the am-
bassador had his audience of leave. During his long residence
he constantly said if he did not succeed it would cost him
Ids head. He has obtained nothing." But this tragedy was
averted by the Emperor sending an ambassador^ General
Yermolof, to Persia, where he arrived at Teheran, May, 1-817.
He carried with him as presents from Alexander to the Shah
several enormous looking-glasses, rich furs, and ornaments in
crystal. The Shah was much pleased with them. He put
his hand upon the furs, and when told the Czar selected
them, said, " May my hand repose upon the same place that
the powerful Emperor of Russia has touched. My friendship
is pure and sincere ; it will endure for ever." His ministers
suggested to Yermolof that this friendship would be cemented
if Russia restored the provinces, or at least part of them.
''I told them," said the General in the journal of his
embassy, '^ for the last time, that I myself, as commander-in«
chief in Georgia, upon whom devolved the care of the frontier,
informed the Emperor it was not possible to make the smallest
concession, and my Sovereign gave me leave to speak in his
name." The General further repeated, that the Persian Go-
vernment was so corrupt and oppressive that it would be an
inhuman act to restore to her those provinces which had once
experienced the blessing of a European administration. Wilson,'^
writing in 1818, remarks upon the extraordinary manner in
which Alexander succeeded in attaching foreign acquisitions,
such as Finland, Courland, Lithuania, Georgia, and the Tartars
to his throne, '' But after having conquered them,'^ he odds,
" Russia is satisfied to enjoy her conquests with moderation.
In every country she respects its customs and its creed, and
maintains the laws that she found established there so long
as they are consistent with humanity."

The Prince of Orange arrived at St, Petersburg Decem-
ber 22nd, and for the first time met his destined bride. Their
marriage took place February 21st. In the interval her sister
was married to the Prince of Wiirtemberg, who before the
end of the year succeeded his father. The Prince of Orange

* Sketch of the Power of Bassia.

Busaia at Peace. 229

wrote to announce his wedding to Wellington^ who had always
been his friend : '^ I have every reason to hope I shall find
as much happiness in this union as can be hoped for; the
character of the Orand Duchess being a very delightful one^
her mind very accomplished^ and her person very pleasing/'
The Princess was certainly without an equal in beauty and
elegance; but she was perhaps almost too grave to please
a man once attached to the gay^ unconventional Princess
Charlotte*

" There is a vast field/' writes De Maistre (January, 1816),
" for the activity of his Imperial Majesty. He sees many
evils; above all, the spirit of infidelity and extravagance,
which he tries to repress with all his strength. He is be-
come severe, even hard. He mortifies everybody. His success
abroad has given him self-confidence. God grant he may
not go too far. I cannot cease to love him ; besides, we (that
is Sardinia) have no other firiend; Austria wishes to possess
everything, either for herself, or her princes «... and in the
state in which he found Russia on his return, there was no
remedy but in a more than firm hand/' An immense coalition
worked to render his reforms non-effective. "The Jesuit fathers
have been perfectly well treated. This precaution, which was
entirely due to his Majesty, is worthy of all praise. Peter the
First would have decapitated them ; even in our days, Paul
would have sent them to Siberia.''

One cause of the prevalent discontent with the Emperor's
measures, was that few of the nobility did not feel them in
a pecuniary point of view, and retrenchment is always un-
popular, however necessary it may be. The farmers of brandy,
a Crown monopoly, were 25,000,000 roubles in arrear to the
State, and an order was published that they should pay their
debts within four months, a term afterwards extended to a
year. Many of the nobility had mortgaged their estates to

* ThetwoBnssian Grand Bncliesses werealso the richest in Europe. Alex*
auder bought his sister Catherine's Russian palace and estate for 2,000,000

Eaper roubles, and another estate with which she had been endowed on
er first marriage was made over to her two sons, who were to be educated
in Bussia. She was accompanied by a Greek priest, and a Russian chapel
was erected for her benefit at Stuttgart. The same was established for
her sister in Brussels, where the Fnnce of Orange was to hold his Court.

230 Rmsia at Peace.

these farmers^ and there was great alarm lest they should be
confiscated with the private property of the farmers to defray
the amount of their debts. The extension of the term enabled
this difficulty in most cases to be surmounted. Another reason
for the discontent was the curtailment of the salaries of those
general officers in good health who were not actively employed ;
for, after the war, numbers retired, and in many instances
lived abroad. This was an economy to the State of 500,000
roubles yearly ; at the same time (March 12th) three admirala
and five general officers past active service were made senators,
which provided them with an honourable maintenance.
Eussia had in reality suffered more in material than any other
country in Europe during the long war, for during seventeen
years A& had not known a month's peace on all her frontiers,
having previously been engaged in hostilities for thirty-five.
Her power of reparation was slower than on the rest of the
Continent, from her maritime commerce and agricultural
labour being suspended during half the year, and no foreigners
came to expend fortunes in Russia as in Italy, Germany, and
France. It was therefore vexatious to see crowds of her
wealthier classes spending their money at the gambling-tables
in Paris and Baden. But the value of paper money, which
fell throughout 1816, to the great distress of the officials whose
salaries were paid in it, rose suddenly towards the end, and con«
tinned to rise from the large exportation of com, owing to the
scarcity throughout Western Europe. ^^In the midst of
general European misery,'^ writes De Maistre, '^ Russia enjoys
the greatest abundance, and feeds other people. Not less than
100,000,000 silver roubles entered the country only for corn
sold/' In February, 1817, the Minister of Finances announced
the payment in silver of a loan of 20,000,000 roubles borrowed
for seven years from the Bank of St. Petersburg in 1810. Even
De Maistre writes, ^' All appearances are good.'' The conscrip-
tion for 1816 was suspended, and the pay of the subaltern
officers increased. The Emperor also bestowed grants of land in
St. Petersburg on any military man wishing to build himself
a house and made the necessary advances, so that within a
very short period 1,600,000 roubles were lent from the Treasury I

for this purpose. ^' The Emperor in these sort of cases is an ^

infinitely honest creditor. He has great projects for embel-

Russia at Peace. 231

lishing St. Petersburg/' He drew, and approved of^ Bereral
plans for houses to be adopted by those who wished to bnild
on Government security, so as to obtain some unilbrmitjr in
the streets, and exchanged the wooden quays of St. Peters-
burg for solid granite. The activity infused into commerce,
and the credit the Russian Government now enjoyed, restored
prosperity to the nation, and already at the close of 1816 it
had made a rapid advance towards healing the wounds inflicted
by the war.

*^ The Russian army,'' writes De Maistre in January, 1816,
'' consists of 560,000 effective men, and 260,000 reserve ; the
finest youth in the world, little troubling themselves about the
buried miUion." '^ Our national levity," wrote Madame
Svetchine in 1813, ''has alone prevented us firom dying of
grief." The buried million was indeed forgotten when the
liberal party in Europe, as well as many of his subjects,
hurled execrations upon Alexander for refosing to undertake
a war with Turkey, single-handed, in order to emancipate the
Greeks; but they were remembered by the Emperor, and
accounted for his determination to preserve peace to his
country till all trace of the campaign of 1812 should be efiaoed.

The national vanity was gratified by an archway Alexander
erected at Czarco-Sdo, ''to the memory of his brave com-
panions-in-arms," and he placed statues of Marshal Roman-
zov, Barclay, and Eutuzov in the summer gardens. With
his brothers he reviewed 40,000 men on the second anni-
versary of the entry into Paris. They dismounted, and'
all the army stood imcovered while the Te Deum was
sung, after which the manoeuvres commenced, being followed
by a banquet of 880 covers, which the Emperor gave to all
the officers of his guard who had accompanied him to Paris,
and a few other distinguished generals. Lord Cathcart
and his son, as well as one German envoy who had taken
part in the war, were invited ; but no other foreign minister.
The diplomatic corps and a number of ladies related to the
officers watched the proceedings from a balcony ; the presence
of ladies at a military filte being a novelty to Russia. " The
dessert was on the table, according to the Russian custom :
the dinner service was of native manufacture ; each plate bore
in the centre the representation of a Russian Order; each

232 Suma at Peace.

guest had before him three crystal glasses worked like the
facings of a uniform. Everybody was served to turtle
Boup^ sterlet, truffles, patties, &c. ; there was no dish cold,
and no oner wanted a plate. Three healths were drunk — first,
to the victorious army ; secondly, to the brave Imperial Ouard ;
thirdly, to the allied armies in France/^^ A fite was also
given by 150 generals and Imperial aides-de-camp^ when the
ambassadors of England, Austria, and Prussia were invited.
Lord Cathcart proposed the Emperor^s health in English, and
said that doubtless all the allied Powers had done their duty,
but Alexander was not the less the true preserver of Europe.
The admirable perseverance, the dauntless courage, the decisive
resolutions, and the ability of the Emperor of Eussia has made
these discordant elements march together, though as discor-
dant to others as to himself/^t

It was said, if peace continued the army would be reduced
to 200,000 men; but there was danger in disbanding half of
it at once, and turning so many soldiers loose in a country
accustomed to serf labour, where freed workmen could find
little or no employment. The militia disbanded in 1813 had
caused , much trouble by supplying brigands and thieves.
Many -projects were put before the Czar. It was generally
thought part would be employed on the public works hitherto
executed by salaried workmen, the Crown serfs ; and others
formed into colonies on the uninhabited Crown lands. The
Romans formerly did something similar,'^ wrote De Maistre ;
'' but the Emperor wishes to keep his hand on the soldiers, and
only confide the spade to them on condition of retaking the
sword at the first signal. A plan of this kind, modified ac-
cording to circumstances, might be of the highest utility to
Sardinia. The Emperor can do without the smallest danger
things very dangerous everywhere else.'^ The result of these
projects was the establishment of the military colonies, which
excited great alarm in Europe. Aratchaief has been ac-
credited with them, but he always declared they were the
Emperor^s own idea. They fiilfilled the double purpose of
cultivating waste lands and providing for the surplus soldiers,
and of forming a nursery for future armies, to prevent the loss
sustained by marching recruits through the country in the
* De Maistre's Correspondence, April 19tb, 1816. f Ibid.

Russia at Peace. 233

depth of winter^ as in 1812. The Cossacks were a most useful
part of the Russian army, and the system on which their
community was originally organized was made the foundation
of the new scheme* The Russian soldier and peasant com-
munistic habits were taken into consideration — ^their custom of
putting their wages and pay into a common fund, and making
an annual equal division, and of distributing the lands allotted
to the villagers by their seigneurs in the same way ; and the
tendency of families to remain together in one house, so
that it was not unusual to find three or four generations living
in perfect harmony under the same roof. The plan would
greatly diminish the cost of keeping up a large army, it would
avoid the separation of parents from their children when they
entered a military career, and would civilize and educate a
considerable number of the Russian lowest class. It might
have been successful in Germany or Hungary, or in some
tribes of the Russian Empire ; but the ordinary Russian serf
was the most conservative of human beings, and most impatient .
of anything like system or method. He had learned to look {
upon labour, even for his own profit, as synonymous with
slavery, and to regard utter idleness as the great blessing of
freedom. Alexander had marched too long at the head of an
army to regard individual interests as compared with the
public advantage. He thought the state of the Russian pea-
sant abject and degraded, and that elevating him into the
position of a military colonist was a material and moral advan-
tage. DifSculties might be met with at the outset, for what
had he ever undertaken which had not met with obstacles ?
but these would be overcome, and in the end the colonies
would furnish the whole military force of Russia, and regular
conscriptions entirely cease.

In Georgia the climate was so destructive that another
plan was adopted. All the soldiers who served beyond the
Caucasus took their wives, that a population might spring up \
which, bom in the country, would be able to resist its effects.
Talleyrand once observed, that the difference between the
policy of Russia and Europe was, that Russia worked for the
future and Europe only for the present ; and this was peculiarly
the case with Alexander, whose object seemed to be to procure
a glorious and tranquil reign for his successor. The French

234 Buma at Peace.

traveller^ M. Dupin^ wrote in 1822^ that in thirty years^ time
the colonists would famish Russia with 8^000,000 soldiers;
Dr. Lyall thought 5^000^000^ while Count Ozarowski went still
further^ and said that at the ordinary rate of increase the
colonies would supply 6^000^000 to the empire. These ex-
aggerated statements gave rise to the belief that Alexander
could have no other motive than the conquest of the whole of
Europe ; and he consequently became one of the most un-
popular of princes beyond his own dominions.

A number of villages belonging to the Crown were derig-
r nated by the Emperor for colonization^ and he selected such
I as seemed most impoverished. Every peasant of fifty or
above was called a master-colonist, and in place of his wooden
cabin, a well-built brick house, furnished with such comforts
as a peasant requires, was given to him, with about forty
English acres of land and a few head of cattle. The house
was sufficiently commodious to take in a soldier and his family,
if he had one, and in return for the soldier's maintenance he
was to help to cultivate the land, with other country labour,
when not occupied in his military duties, which it was expressly
stated would not call him away at the season of ploughing
and harvest. No capitation tax was levied on the colonists :
the villages were provided with water, a church, a school, a
hospital and medical staff, medicines, public baths, a shop, a
gymnasium, an exercising-house, and a restaurant and reading-
room for the officers, all the buildings being of brick. A
master-colonist might choose a son or a friend in the colonized
regiment as his partner, but it was plain that an injudicious
commanding officer might exercise great oppression. The
soldier succeeded to the master-colonist's place in case of his
death, and in his turn received a partner in his toils. If a
master-colonist had sons, the eldest was made his partner, and
enrolled under the name of a soldier-cultivator; the second
was put on the reserve, and furnished with a separate house ;
the rest, according to their age, would be on the reserve, or
children of the regiment, who were educated in the public
school of the colony and drilled twice a week. The houses
were provided with buckets and other conveniences in case of
fire ; a patrol preserved order or gave alarm ; enclosed gardens
and yards surrounded the habitations, which were gaily painted

Bama Ht Peace. 285

and inscribed with the name of their owner ; the streets were
paved and drained and lined with rows of trees. Eren those
who opposed Hxe system allow that the deanliness and em-
bellishment of the militajry colonial villages was a striking
oontrast to the ordinary aspect of Bnssian homes ; the school-
boys and cadets (the youths between thirteen and seventeen)
fired at a mark and executed military evolutions with astonish-
ing precision, and esprit de corps existed among these children
which gave much promise for their future efficiency. At the
end of ten years 60,000 men and nearly 30/XX) horse were estab-
lished on the Crown lands in the midst of a population of
400,000 peasants with their wives and children.

The cavalry regiments were colonized in Little Bussiai
where the abundance of grass made the keep of a horse a
comparatively light burden, else that was in some cases added
to the establishment of a master-colonist. Every soldier who
could not read and write attended an adult school, and the
whole colony were supplied with, uniforms, and under the
supervision of the commanding officer. The two chief
superintendents of the military .colonies were Aratchaief and
Count de Witt ; but the first, by his excessive attention to
minutiae, harshness, and economy, soon made the system odious
to the people at large ; for the master-colonists, who had worn
their beards and hair long till fifty, were obliged to be shaven
and trimmed like the rest, on the ground of cleanliness.
Byron little thought when he counselled Alexander ** to wash
and shave his Bashkir hordes,^^^ that it was already being
carried out, to the grief of his subjects. Several of these
rules were soon modified ; but still the peasants, who had
elected their own magistrates and formed their own municipal
laws, resisted the supervision of the military authorities ; and
the secret societies, beginning to be very numerous in Bussia,
excited troubles and insurrections among them. The first
regiment colonized was a battalion of grenadiers in the
government of Novgorod, and the ukaz on the subject was
dated August 17th (n.s.), 1816. Another was established the
same year at Yitepsk, and produced in a twelvemonth com
sold for 80,000 roubles, and 144 male children were born to
add eventually to its military strength. Alexander spoke of

• The Age of Bronze, 1823.

235 Russia at Peace.

the colony at NoTgorod as an experiment. That province'
had famished more than the usual number of complaints, and
he wished to see if a military governor over the heads of the
civil authorities would meet with more success. '' It is im*
possible/' writes De Maistre, '' to judge the result of all the
Emperor's innovations, for he governs an empire without pre-
cedent.'' In point of territory it was four times the size of
that of Napoleon, and neither Caesar nor Alexander the Great
had exercised authority over such an extended dominion or so
many different people. '^ Public opinion is against the
colonies. The Emperor has all that is necessary to operate
great changes — a great strength of mind, and strength of body,
which is quite as necessary to sustain his labours, and a great
confidence in himself, acquired by brilliant and well merited
success ; a great knowledge of abuses, a great wish to repair
them, and an absolute independence of every sort of prejudice.
Several abuses called for a repairing hand; but what human
eye can see into the future ?"*

By the treaty of 1815 the protectorate of the Ionian Isles
was claimed by Great Britain, though the inhabitants had
shown a preference for Russia; and the English ofiScer ap-
pointed to govern them made himself very impopular by his
contempt for the native inhabitants. Complaints of his harsh-
ness were brought to the Emperor in 1816, by some of those
who had formed part of the Legislative Council when the
islands were ruled constitutionally, first by Russia and then by
France ; and Alexander wrote a short letter to Castlereagh on
the subject, recommending a constitution. •** I rejoice," writes
Castlereagh to Wellington, May 18th, 1816, " to observe the
good humour with which you have kept the allied machinery
together. I persuade myself that Russia means to preserve it.
The Emperor recently made a very cordial overture to the
Regent in this sense." Still Alexander was viewed with un-
founded suspicion, not allayed by a close alliance he formed
with the United States. He had made many inquiries about
the working of the constitution in the various provinces of
America, and read every book he could find on the subject ;
and it was rumoured an article of the treaty promised him
four ports on the Pacific Ocean if America obtained possession

* De Maistre's Correspondence.

Btiasia at Peace. 237

of Mexioo and California. Louis XVIIL sent this report in
great alarm to the British Gorernment^ and the next year
another was circulated^ that Spain had ceded to Russia the port
of Mahon in Minorca (the island formerly offered by the
British GoTemment to Catherine II.)* Lord Cathcart was in-
structed to inquire about it from Nesselrode, who at once
denied it, as such an establishment was quite foreign to the
Emperor^s views and wishes.^ At the same time Maria Louisa
resisted settling her duchy on the Spanish royal family in the
event of her death, wishing to reserve it for her own heirs ;
and when her father appealed to the treaty, she threatened to
make such disclosures to Alexander as would bring Russia
against him. Austria still felt bitter about the republic
of Cracow, and her agents were active in fomenting
discontent in Warsaw, with the hope that an insurrection
in the Grand Duchy might give her a pretext for reclaim*
ing it.

One result of the war of 1812 was an increased feeling of
nationality in Russia, and a desire to cultivate the Russian
language and literature instead of the French. Russian was
established as the Court language, and native tutors began to
be extensively employed. As a better style of building and
draining was introduced into Moscow, fevers, which constantly
prevailed there before 1812, almost entirely disappeared, and
the plague has never. sincp penetrated so far north. In 1816
six journals and magazines were being published there, and
fourteen in St. Petersburg. " The liberty of the press/' said
an article in the Presse du Nord of St. Petersburg, October
4th, 1816, '' protected by our august monarch, has the inap-
preciable advantage of allowing every truth to reach the foot
of the throne : it can displease none but those who wish to
isolate the prince from his people, and such men wiU never be
listened to during the reign of Alexander.^' The feeling
became so strong in Russia against the employment of
foreigners, that after 1815 no ofScer not bom in the empire
could obtain a commission in her army, except to serve in
Georgia. The prejudice was warranted by the discovery that
many of those who had served with them during the war had
been half-hearted friends, mainly bent on procuring their own
* Wellington's Despatches and Correspondence.

238 Russia at Peace.

interests^ or the interests of their native country, by means of
Bussia.

Alexander's old gOTemor> Soltikof, died June 18th, 1816,
at the age of more than eighty, having served as a colonel in
the Seven Years' War. Sitice then he was employed in civil
occnpations, though the Marshal's bAton was on his cofBn.
Alexander had bestowed every honour upon him, and visited
him frequently during his last illness : their adieu the very day
of his death was most touching, and with Constantine he fol-
lowed the hearse on foot. ** The Marshal presided over the
Council of State during the Emperor's absence, who created
him a prince on his return. He was a sensible man, well in*
structed in the principles of the country, and understood
business well : his good qualities were rather tarnished by his
love of money. His eldest son is in all respects one of the
most estimable and marked men of this country.''

De Maistre describes a fSte given by the Empress Dowager
at Paulovski, on June 18th, in honour of the Prince of Orange,
and a dinner from the merchants of St. Petersburg to the
Emperor, the two Empresses, and the Imperial family, on the
opening of the new Bank."^ " Yet St. Petersburg is not what
we knew it in past times. A sad atmosphere overspreads it to
such a degree, that foreigners who have not seen this beautiful
city for ten years no longer recognize it. The highest class
has forgotten what an open house is. . . . The Emperor has
shown himself the preserver of Europe, and of Sardinia par-
ticularly, by saving France, and consequently the general
equilibrium. It wiU be a calamity to us and to many others
if he cannot maintain the attitude he holds now."

The fgte-day of the Empress-mother, August 3rd, was cele«
brated by the annual popular masquerade ball in the castle
and grounds at Peterhof, instituted by Peter the Great. Six
thousand invitations were distributed, but the admission was

* ''The dinner was on the table at exactly two, aoeording to the new
order established by his Majesty, and the bcmquet was verv short, for the
Emperor has not time to lose. The great hall is very handsome by itself^
and was embellished by a profusion of flowers, orange trees, arbntnses,
and decorated with the flags of all nations. Another hall was destined to
receive the Court on its arrival, and a third contained a chanel, where
they sang a Te Deum. The only priest present at dinner was tne Metro-
pohtaa."

jRuma at Peace. 239

almost unlimited: nobles^ merchants^ and serfs mixed to-
gether in the presence of the Sovereign without distinction or
etiquette^ and the gardens were brilliantly illuminated. A
number of spectators^ merchants and their wives^ were return-
ing home by water to St. Petersburg, when they were over-
taken by a sudden squall which wrecked several of the boats,
and nearly 200 people were drowned. The Emperor told his
mother this fSte should be the last, since they were so un-
fortunate ; for a few years before some horses took fright at
the fireworks, and did great damage. Towards the end of
August the Russian ship Sttvorov returned from a three years'
voyage round the world, loaded with curiosities in natural
history and botanical science. A Russian colony was esta-
blished in the Sandwich Islands'^, but ultimately abandoned,
as Sitka was sufficient to protect the fisheries in the Northern
Seas.

Alexander left for Moscow with Volkonski and Capo
d'Istria, August 27th; it was officially announced to visit
those provinces which had suffered most from the war, and to
stimulate the measures taken for their relief. They were
exempted from taxation for a term of years, the same privUege
being bestowed on Kazan, and he subscribed liberally for its
restoration. He met his brother Nicholas, who had been to
the Crimea, in Moscow, and in a public speech alluded to the
sufferings t and heroism of her citizens, and to the stupendous

* Tanconver has given evidence of the good treatment which the
natives received from the Russians in their American settlements.

t " The ioumey of his M^esty to Moscow," writes De Maistire> Se^
tember 17th, " was successfol oeyond imagination. The presence of this

Seat prince in the middle of his trae capit^ produced a tender enthusiasm,
e told his assembled nobiHty, that amone the foreign people he had
visited he had found none to compare to his own ; he has promised to
pass a whole vear with them (next year it is said), and in addition two
months out of every suoceedinff year. Re left Moscow on the 2nd (14th),
not wishing to be there on the 3rd, a dav for ever to be d^bred. A
Eussian said to me, ' If the Emperor aslcedtne nobility of Moscow at this
moment for two-tenths of their wealth they would give it weeping for
joy.' I do not think he exaggerated. It would be disrespect to a prince»
equally clear-sighted and impenetrable, to scrutinize his thoughts ; but cer-
tainly they are very profound. To satisfy yourself on- the imperturbable
and wise progress oi this pnnoe, yon have only to look at the establish-
ment of Poland. Bead all. Sire, and you will see he has walked invariably
to his end, mocking at all errors, all vain-glorying, and all factions, and he
has not ended yet.

240 jRussia at Peace.

act of patriotism whicli must redound to their honour to the
end of time. He visited the most liberal of the merchants
in their own homes.

Arrived in Warsaw one of the first days of October, he
was much pleased with the Polish troops. Czartoriski^s re-
peated complaints of Constantine during the spring of 1816
made him recall his brother to St. Petersburg to answer
them ; but he was allowed to return after a salutary caution^
when it was shown that the instances brought forward were
cases where punishment was merited, although he had in«
flicted it without going through a legal process. The Polish
military were accustomed to the license Napoleon permitted
to his armies, and the civilians had lived too long under a
lawless rule to consider thefts, duelling, assaults, and other
offences common in a barbarous state, as crimes; and in a
Polish court of justice if a Russian prosecuted a Pole the case
was, as a matter of course, dismissed. It was not as if a
peaceable, well-ordered people were being restored to a long-
established constitutional government, but it was the nation
of all others most restless* and most impatient of all law or
the control of civilized life who were being allowed as an
experiment to undertake their own legislative functions ; and
never at any period has Ireland proved herself a more trouble-
some appendage to the British Crown. However, when Alex-
ander visited the Polish capital he was enthusiastically re-
ceived, and the year of peace in which the revenue was ex-
pended upon the country while Russia defrayed the cost of
the army was beginning to show effect. During the French
campaign in Russia the population of the Grand Duchy was
reduced by 800,000 people. Now new houses and new shops
were springing up in the towns ; the capital was paved, having
hitherto been a swamp in wet weather : no regular high road
had existed through Poland, and the nearest on the side of
Germany was at Leipsic; but several were already marked
out for construction as soon as the national finances could
afford it. Everything wore a smiling air of prosperity.
While Alexander stayed he attended the early parade every
morning as in St. Petersburg, and frequented the Polish baUs.

* A Polish priest in Warsaw blew out his brains on the high altar in
Jnne, 1816.

Russia at Peace. 241

He visited Vilna, arriving October 25 th, his mother's birth-
day^ at Gateschina, and the same night at St. Petersburg.

The property left by the Jesuits in St. Petersburg was a
matter of dispute throughout the year 1816. Their last
legally appointed general, Father Gruber, had received a sum of
9000 roubles from Paul to build a church and college, and
erected them at the cost of 450,000 roubles, thereby con-
tracting a debt which the community was gradually paying
off. evince Galitzin now wished to sequestrate it and sell it
for the payment of the debt, and refeiTcd to an old law per-'
mitting the sequestration of the property of exiles. The
Roman Catholic Archbishop in St. Petersburg seconded him,
and when the Emperor referred the matter to the Council of
State, all the members except two pressed for its immediate
confiscation. The Emperor answered, '^ As this religion is not
mine, I ought not to be in haste to decide.^' Aratchaief said
to his fellow councillors, '' What does this silly question
matter of knowing to whom the house belongs ? We wish it,
we will have it, and all is said.'' Alexander consulted the
chief lawyers on the subject. They voted for its confiscation.
The Emperor at last bought it, and repaid the creditors, who
were chiefly Soman Catholics, devoting the surplus to pious
works. "What must he have thought," says De Maistre,
^^ of the honesty of his advisers ?"

"On December 24th, the Emperor's birthday, there was
the usual levee, ball, and a supper laid for 800 guests. The
reigning Empress made an effort to appear at the levle in the
morning, but not at the fete in the evening. She is mortally
afflicted by the death of a Princess Galitzin, a child of twelve,
the daughter and relic of a friend who died in the flower of
her age. When the young child expired under the eyes of
the Empress, who had brought her up. Mile. Wittgenstein,
daughter of the general, whom the Sovereign had also adopted,
was at the last extremity at the convent (school) for the
daughters of noblemen. I was told that at the beginning of
the young Galitzin's illness, the Empress said, ' I interest
myself in her. She will die.' Everybody says the Emperor
has been wonderful on this occasion. I knew it, even if they
had not told me. This birthday was marked by general favours.
The Emperor nearly doubled the pay of the military officers*

VOL. III. a

242 Russia at Peace.

This increases the expeuse by 8,000^000 roubles^ but be ha»
raised the necessary funds by reducing the number of horses^
and economy in the military train. His time is almost
absorbed by military details. Prince A. Oalitzin sees him
and dines inth him, but it is as a friend, and almost as a
messmate. The council of ministers govern, and the result
of their operations is carried to the Emperor, who decides^
The great personage \^ho transmits orders to all the depart-
ments is Aratchaief, a man of natural ability, who invariably
maintains himself. He refuses money because he i% rich, and
orders because he has no need of them. He modestly con-
tents himself with the Emperor's portrait. Every day he
brings to his Majesty piles of papers relating to every branch
of the government.'^*

Since the settlement of Europe foreigners who had obtained
honours or fortune in Russia began to return in large numbers
to their native countries. To one of these Alexander observed,
he was doing his duty in passing to the service of his own
master ; yet De Maistre thought he saw in ^^ all these hasty
resignations a little indifference towards himself. The Emperof
pays highly for all talent, but the ordinary foreigner would
meet with a poor reception.'* He fancied he had rather gone
out of the imperial favour in the spring of 1817, though the
Empress paid particular' attention to him, and he pressed for
his recall.t

For once in his life, on December 24th, 1816, the Emperor
spoke politically at a levee on the subject of the insurrection
in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World.
" I am very sorry," he said in a low voice to Saldanha Gama,
*' for what is passing in America ;" and to the Spanish minister,
that " after all the efforts made to restore peace, it was being
troubled by Portugal and Spain.^

}}

* De Maistre.
t " No prince is more disposed than the Emperor to pardon things
which might have offended him. I have good reason to believe him
capable of disregarding: personal >vTong8 and insolence, which under other
reigns might have drawn thunder. On this point he is sublime ; but by
one of those contradictions found in human nature, if once he receives an
unfavourable impression there is no remedy. This last quality belongs
to temper and sovereign obstinacj, the first to conscience and greatness
of 80 nl. I am as sure of his justice as of his existence ; but this virtue is
not enough for me, as I was accustomed to something more gentle."

Russia at Peace. 243

But the Ultramontanes were also troubling the peace in
Poland^ alarmed at the inclination of the Polish Church to
break off from Rome^ and acknowledge the Czar as its only
head. One day, seeing the Emperor pass, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop at St. Petersburg said before several people, '^ that
is my Pope/' De Maistre thought the Emperor might unite
the two Churches, but that it would be possible for no one
else. " It would not be the work of ^a year ; but he is only
thirty-nine."*

Among other resignations, Paulucci sent in his, to accept a
post in the Sardinian Court ; but the Czar hearing it was
offered, called it '^ ridiculous to expect a general to take it,''
and Paulucci remained for a few years longer in Russia.
Alexander held such dignities in so much contempt, that he
depriyed all Court officials of any rank unless they filled some
other office, and gentlemen of the chamber were entirely
abolished. On Easter-day the Orand Chamberlain was ad-
mitted to the customary Easter kiss from the Sovereign after
the State Council, the Senate, and the lowest lieutenant
among the military. The Carnival was kept in 1817 with
especial brilliancy. Three thousand persons were invited to a
ball in the Taurida Palace, and outside there was a display of
fireworks^ representing an obelisk and trees in green fire.f The
greatest precautions were taken to avoid danger from the
crowd of carriages.]: In 1816 a steamboat plied daily between.
St. Petersburg and Cronstadt.

The year 1817 was one of great distress and scarcity in

* " He is at this moment all-powerful in Europe. There are few princes
on whom criticism has been more exhausted, even at home. I have never
shared the opinion of the critics. My ju^rment is now justified, and no
one doabts tnis great prince's merits. The campaigns of 1812 and of
1814 were conducted with so much prudence, dexterity, and courage, it is
impossible to dispute the glory due to him. In the interior be does what
he can, but the material resists the workman. What is most to be feared
on his part is the annihilation of the civilian, and the creation of a nation
of soldiers, with all the ills resulting from such a state of things. We
may also fear his projects in point of rehgion . . . but, nevertheless,
when the Emperor deceives himself, he will not the less be the greatest of
self-deceivers.

t This artificial fire is peculiar to the Bussians, learned, it is said, from
the Chinese.

;( " In general the respect for human flesh and a tender consideration
for mankind is and can not be yet a virtue perfectly naturalized in Russia,
but it has a great entry at the Winter Palace, and thence will extend itself
to all Bussia.'' ..." la point of sovereign amiability, roj'^al politeness,

K 2

244 Busaia at Peace.

Germany^ and as Jung Stilling preached that an earthly
millennium was approaching, when the Saviour would reign
in Georgiaj the cradle of the human race^ thousands left Grer-
many^ and embarked^ without notice or preparation^ on board
rickety boats on the Danube^ to venture across the Black Sea
to the Crimea. Some were wrecked, others died of fever,
famine, and fatigue. Two of the elders of their community
foimd their way to Moscow towards the end of 1817, to lay
their distressing case before the Emperor. They were ad-
mitted to an audience with Alexander and the two Empresses,
and received a grant of money and an escort across the
steppes and the Caucasus into Georgia, where the Governor
received orders to allow them to choose a district out of the
Crown lands, and they soon formed a flourishing colony. In
their collection of hymns Alexander is called " the Protector
of the believing flocks in the new kingdom of Jesus on
earth.^' " Providence has chosen Alexander to be the defender
of Zion, to prepare a place of security for the Bride, the
Church.^' These religious sects were all looked upon with
great disfavour by the German Governments, and Madame de
KjTudener, who left Paris soon after the Emperor, to return to
her missionary labours in Baden and Wiirtemberg, was chased
from town to town, and thought by many to be a Russian
spy. Alexander was weary of her vague prophecies, and his
modesty was distressed by the exalted manner in which she
spoke of him in public to her followers ; but he protected her
as his subject when he found she was expelled from Basle, and
at a time when she was suffering from cataract in both eyes,
and an operation was necessary to restore her sight. At the
end of 1817 she returned to her estates in Russia, but some of
her companions were arrested and detained in Prussia till he
reclaimed them. A year later she came to St. Petersburg,
where her appearance and exhortations excited the greatest
interest. A large number of Russians of the old school had
become Illuminists and Swedenborgians as early as Catherine's
reign, and published a journal, which was suppressed by the
Holy Synod. The Bible Society gave them a fresh impetus,

channing and animated conversation, his Majesty cannot be surpassed
by any prince, as I have more than once observed ; but if he wi^es to
freeze or chastise by a single word he is quite as superior." — De Maistre.

I

r

Russia at Peace. 245

and Madame de Krudener added fuel to the flame. But the
Greek Church had an able champion in the Archimandrite
Fhoti^ whose ascetic life equalled the hermits of old times^
and who was supplied with large funds for his monastic esta«
blishment near Novgorod by the wealthy Countess Anna
Orlof. Her father^ one of the murderers of Peter III., had
been enriched by the spoils of the Church, and in the hope of
procuring pardon for his soul, she refused all offers of mar-
riage, and devoted her life to pious works and her riches to
the source from which they sprang. The Bible Society had
280 branch establishments through Russia, and the Emperor
paid the expense of a Scotch missionary settlement among the
heathen in Siberia ; but the heads of the Society, not imi-»
tating him in tolerance, boasted that they should convert
Russia into a Protestant empire, and accused the Greeks of
superstition and idolatry. Far from having any special predi-
lection for Protestants, beyond regarding them as people
leading moral lives likely to civilize his empire, Alexander was
often known to resort privately to the Roman Catholic church,
which was always kept open, and there to offer up his private
prayers. But Photi took alarm. He possessed enthusiasm
and eloquence, and preached energetically in St. Petersburg, call-
ing on the people to repent and amend their lives, and to protect
the Holy. Orthodox Church. He even penetrated unbidden
into the Winter Palace, and entreated the Emperor to stop
the innovations of the English heretics. Alexander visited
his monastery, an example soon followed by half of St. Peters-
burg, and prostrated himself by the side of the sandalled
monk and Aratchaief in the chapel, where the exact spot is
still pointed out to travellers. Nevertheless, he endeaicoured
to hold an even balance between the contending parties, and
was of opinion that in Russia there was room for all. He
believed that prayers offered up in English, German, Latin, or
Slavonic were alike acceptable to the Almighty if the humility
and faith were the same ; and he thought this fervour, though
wanting in charity, was better than the cold liberality of
scepticism.

The new bank for the aid of commerce, opened in 1816 in
St. Petersburg, received an advance from the Emperor of
80,000,000 roubles; and by a ukaz, 17th April, 1817, he de-

246 Eu98ia at Peace.

voted 30^000^000 roubles annually firom the Imperial treasury^
and the same sum from his own revenues^ towards the payment
of the debts contracted in 1812 and 1813. At the same time
the expenses of the Court were much curtailed by the dimi-
nished number of fStes. Alexander attended two balls at the
English and French Embassies in the winter of 1817^ but stayed
only an hour at each ; for after dancing a polonaise with his
mother and his hostess, he left the two Empresses and his
brother Michael to represent the Court ; and from this period
he was seldom known to pass a longer time at any similar en-
tertainment.

Nicholas paid a visit to England in the winter of 1816-17,
and his arrival there was made the occasion for more than one
lament over the power of Russia by the English press. He
returned in the spring to Russia^ where his wedding was cele-
brated^ July 13th.

The Princess Charlotte of Prussia left Berlin June 12th,
accompanied by her brother William (the present Emperor of
Germany). Alexander met her at the last stage from Gates-
china. At Paulovski the two Empresses received her ; the tall,
stately, rather stiff Mary Federovna, now fifty-eight, and the
small, quiet Empress Elizabeth, who still bore some trace of
the beauty which once made her one of the loveliest women in
the mpiree. The frightened Princess looked on Alexander as
a protector, for, of all whom she saw, he was the only one she
had known from her childhood. The next morning she en-
tered St. Petersburg, and five days afterwards made her public
profession of the Greek faith. The Emperor acted as her god-
father, and she was named after him when she was rebaptized,
appearing for the ceremony before the assembled court between
her two sponsors, Alexander and a nun clothed in black. On
July 7th (n.s.), Nicholases birthday, she was formally be-
trothed, and the wedding, a week later, was solemnized in the
presence of all the Imperial family. In the evening Alexander
and his wife drove together to the Anitchkov Palace, to receive
the young couple in their new abode ; and the marriage festi-
vities continued for nearlv a week. Prince William of Prussia
remained six months in Russia, till his sister had become re-
conciled to the separation from her old home.

Alexander went to Czarco-Selo after his brother's wedding.

I

Buasia at Peace. 247

luad gave a banquet to the newly married pair^ who stayed with
the Dowager-Empress at Faulovski. The bride was distressed
by the stiff etiquette which prevailed in her mother-in-law's
Court. Her husband was ordered about and directed in his
most minute occupations as if he were still a child, and the
Empress domineered over every one within her reach. Nobody
£Ould ride or walk even in the garden unless she pleased ; and
»& this system produced silence and reserve throughout the
establishment, Alexandra found it extremely dull, and looked
forward from one Sunday to another, when the Emperor came
to spend the evening with his mother, and amused her with
imecdotcs of her native land ; but she never could get on with
the reigning Empress, and was an object of some jealousy to
Elizabeth when she became the envied possessor of a son.

Alexander reviewed the fleet at Cronstadt, and proceeded to
inspect the military colonies, while his wife and mother held a
masquerade ball at St. Petersburg, in which one appeared as
H bat and the other as a sorceress. He met them in Moscow
towards the end of September, and the Court spent the ensuing
year amidst the ruined dty. In consequence of the flattering
addresses he received on this journey, he publicly reminded his
people that they made use of eulogiums which could only pro-
perly be applied to the Most High, and requested the Synod
to give necessary instructions to the clergy to prevent his ears
being offended by such expressions in future. He paid a visit
to the gunworks at Tula, and ordered an Englishman to search
for coal in the province, where some was discovered very con-
veniently situated for the manufactory ; but Dr. Lyall says the
proprietors of the forests, who would have suffered by its in-
troduction, caused it to be declared unfit for the purpose, and
it was therefore not used.

Although traces of the conflagration were visible in Moscow,
im almost inconceivable advance was made towards obliterating
them, but the palaces of the nobility remained in ruins.'^ In
the suburbs PauFs old favourites, Pahlen, Panine, and Kutaissof,
still occupied country seats. The Emperor inhabited the part
of the Kremlin where he had stayed for his coronation,
and where Napoleon afterwards installed himself; and tlic
Dowager-Empress was accommodated in another palace^

* Macmichael, 181 7.

248 Russia at Peace.

Nicholas and his bride, with Prince William of Prussia, lived
in a third.

^^ In the hospitals and public institutions/' writes a visitor
to Moscow in 1817, "good order and cleanliness are enforced
by the constant unexpected visits Alexander pays to them, for
he is liable to appear and go through a minute inspection at
any hour of the day, and sometimes in the middle 6f the
night/* His sojourn in Moscow was beneficial to its trade^
and he was indefatigable in visiting the environs and reviewing
the troops in the neighbourhood ; but it had a lowering effect
on his own spirits, and the melancholy which had over-
shadowed him at frequent intervals now threatened to become
chronic. On October 22nd he laid the foundation-stone of an
enormous cathedral, to be erected on the Sparrow Hill, and
dedicated to the Saviour, in memory of the deliverance of
Moscow in 1812, Four hundred thousand people witnessed
the ceremony, and fifty thousand troops. The Emperor laid
the first stone, and the two Empresses, Prince William,
Nicholas, and the archbishop, each put one in the same place j
a sermon was preached, and the ceremony concluded with
prayers. A commission was appointed to superintend the
erection of the building, for which a large fund was assigned,
and a Russian, named Vitberg, was the architect j but the work
proceeded slowly, as thirty years were allowed for its construc-
tion; the money slipped through dishonest hands, and the
original scheme was finally abandoned for a smaller edifice,
still unfinished.

The two Empresses visited the neighbouring nobility, and
the young Grand Duchess Alexandra attempted to keep up a
lively Court in her own palace ; but the Emperor lived a
retired life, chiefly occupied with business and his religious
duties, though it was nevertheless a gay winter in Moscow,
He had the usual reception on his birthday; but early in
December an entertainment was postponed, for the news of
the death of the Princess Charlotte of England had been*
received with real sorrow by all the Imperial family. The
Emperor gave an audience to an English missionary, Mn
Way, on his road to minister among the Tartars in the
Crimea. He was accompanied by a Christian convert. Sultan
Gherai, the son of the last Khan of the Crimea, on whom the

' i

Hussia at Peace. 249

Emperor had settled a pension of 6000 roubles a year. Mr.
Way said of his conversation with the Emperor, that it was
not an Imperial audience, but the friendly intercourse of one
Christian with another. To the Sultan, Alexander said as
he wished him good bye, " You are now a young man, and if,
in the course of a long life, and after hard labour among your
poor deluded countrymen, you should be instrumental in
leading only one sinner to Christ, you will still have reason to
bless God and to rejoice at it through eternity.^' In October
he went for a day or two to Czarco-Selo for the " Commemo-
ration,^^ as it would be called ut Oxford, and the young
student Pushkin read his ode on Infidelity before him, and
was publicly saluted as a brother poet by the aged Derzharvin.
The same month Alexander corresponded with Wellington and
the allied Sovereigns on the subject of the indemnity still
owed by France. The Duke wrote to the Emperor from
Cambrai that he had reviewed the Russian corps ; and Alex-
ander informed the Duke (October 17th) that he had written
to his brother Sovereigns to propose to them a diminution of
the terms required, as it seemed impossible for France to pay
them : she would therefore probably decline ; while if they
took the initiative, it would preserve the good faith of the
treaty and give an example of moderation. Louis's Govern-
ment was placed in great diificulties by the Republican agita-
tion in France, which was connected with a secret society
called the Carbonari, originally established in Naples to
overturn the Bonaparte supremacy, but now extending its
ramifications through Europe with the object of abolishing
every reigning dynasty. The bills for damages sent in by all
the nations of Europe, except England and Russia, far ex-
ceeded anything contemplated in 1815, and they also claimed
back interest. Prussia was the most pressing and the most
unwilling to lose an iota of her demands, and France showed
no disposition to adhere strictly to her engagements. Alex-
ander's remonstrance with Berlin, and the representations of
his ambassador, Pozzo di Borgo, to the allied ministers suc-
ceeded in obtaining the desired reduction and a shortening of
the term of occupation. He wrote again to the Duke from
Warsaw to congratulate him on his escape, a man of the name
of Cantillon having made an attempt on his life in Paris. The

250 Buasia at Peace*

Erencli agents employed to investigate the matter tried to
excite suspicion against Alexander or the Prince of Orange as
having been concerned in it^ and that was made the pretext
for Cantillon^s acquittal; the Emperor being still regarded as
almost a Jacobin by the French Conservatives^ and the Prince
having unwisely lent some support to a radical faction who
talked of displacing Louis in his favour. " I mentioned/'
writes the Duke, March 18th, 1818, " that I thought the great
personage was brought forward to mislead us, and that they
would name the Emperor of Russia, as it was hoped by all
Jacobins, and therefore believed by them, that he was upon
bad terms with England, and they could easily expect to get
•credit for his being concerned in a plot to assassinate me ; or
the Prince of Orauge for another reason, that he was inti-
matelv connected with them. But I do not believe there is
any great personage in the plot, and don^t know who they
would name. It is not impossible, however, that they might
name the Duke of Kent ; but the Prince of Orange is the
most likely." Napoleon bequeathed a legacy to Cantillou as
a reward for the attempt, which is a strong proof that it was
instigated by the Bonapartists.

The Duke of Kent wrote to Alexander on the subject of
Lancastrian schools, and several Russians were sent to London
io be instructed in the system, with a view to its introduction
for both boys and girls of the lower class. Schools, missions,
and prison reform* occupied much of the Emperor's attention.
At Moscow he built an exercising house, the largest room in
the world without a pillar, constructed a public garden, now
called after him, and erected a statue to " Citizen Minim and
Prince Pojarsky^' from " grateful Russia." In February he
left for Moscow, where he arrived on the 13th of March, and
opened the first Diet on the 27th. Constantine was elected
as deputy for Praga by 103 votes against 6 ; but during its
session was obliged to renounce his privilege as a senator, it
being contrary to the Constitution for any member to have a

• It made a great advance in his reign. He was aided by Gralitzin and
some members of the English Bible Society. He ordered the leg-irons
worn by the convicts to be always padded, a chapel to be attached to
«very prison, exercise to be permitted in fine weather, and the prisoner
to receive religious instruction, to be employed in trade, and remunerated
for his labour.

Russia at Peace. 251

seat in both Houses at the same time. Alexander's speech on
the occasion^ which was delivered in the Polish language^
gained much applause. He spoke strongly of the advantages
of a constitutional government. "Your restoration/' he
added, " is decreed by solemn treaties ; it is sanctioned by the
constitutional charter. The inviolability of these exterior
engagements and of this fundamental law secures to Poland
an honourable rank among the nations of Europe, a privilege
the more precious as she long sought it in vain in the midst
of the most severe trials. . . . The organization in force in
your country permitted the immediate establishment of those
liberal institutions which have not ceased to be the object of
my solicitude. With the assistance of God^ I hope to extend
their salutary influence to all the countries intrusted to my
care^ as soon as the elements of so important a work have
obtained the necessary development there ; and I trust you
may prove to contemporary kings that the liberal institutions
they pretend to confound with the disastrous doctrines in
these days threatening the social system with a frightful
catastrophe, are not a dangerous illusion, but that reduced in
good faith to practice, and directed in a pure spirit towards
conservative ends, and the good of humanity, they are per-
fectly allied to order, and the best security for the happiness
of nations.^' He remained in Poland, laboriously occupied
with the examination of State afiairs, during the whole session^
which extended to April 27th (the Russian Good Friday), and
on the 30th left for Kiov and Odessa. There is little doubt
that at this time the majority of the Poles were perfectly
satisfied^ though a few of the nobles, who aspired to the throne
if Poland was a separate monarchy, still showed signs of dis-
content. Czartoriski lost no opportunity of pointing out to
Alexander that even a Russian commissioner ought not to
reside in Warsaw ; that he ought to recall Constantine, and
that Poland should be merely an allied Government ; in short,
that with the previous history of Poland in his recollection,
Alexander should sever the only real tie which bound the
Grand Duchy to Russia.

Alexander visited the colonies of Memnonites^ Smolensko
Refugees, and Dissentcra, and was received with great enthu-
siasm at Odessa and in the Crimea^ where he distributed

252 Rnssia at Peace,

t*^

X

money and orders and directed many improvements. At
Kherson he left a sum of money for the erection of a monu^
ment over Howard's grave near that city. The inscription he
selected for the philanthropist contained merely the date of
his birth and deaths and round a medallion displaying his por-
trait in bas-relief, the words, in Slavonic, ^' I was sick and ye
visited Me, I was in prison and ye came imto Me.'' He also
witnessed the launch of two men-of-war at Nicolaief. In the
Crimea he gave strict orders for the preservation of the Greek
remains of antiquity, and left 165,000 roubles for the restora-
tion of the Palace of Batchi-Serai. The Tartars flocked fix)m
all parts to see him, and the confidence he showed in their
loyalty, by travelling without any military escort, much im-
pressed them. An English lady who visited the Crimea the
same year, writes : '^ The mild and conciliating manners of
this most powerful monarch won the hearts of the humblest of
his subjects ; few there are who do not boast of having seen
the £mperor, and not a few who had the honour to converse
with him/' He seemed pleased with the attentions of this
primitive people, and looking through his field-glass at a
crowd round a house, where he was going to pass the night, he
said they were a fine and interesting race, and he would not
on any consideration permit them to be disturbed. He
minutely inspected Sevastopol and the places of interest on
the southern coast, and then proceeded by way of Azov and
Taganrog to Novo Cherkask, the capital of the Don Cossacks ;
but the old Hetman Platof had died the previous January,
never having recovered the fatigues of the campaign of
1812-14.

From Novo Cherkask he went straight to Moscow, arriving
June 13th, after traversing more than 2000 miles since he
left Warsaw, minutely inspected every place of importance in
Bessarabia, on the coasts of the Black Sea and the south of
Azov, the Crimean peninsula, the country of the Don Cossacks,
and also made some stay at the principal towns. At Kiov he
received the news of the birth of his nephew (the present
Emperor) on the Russian Easter Sunday, April 29th, at
Moscow : and twelve days afterwards the Prince was baptized
with his uncle's name. He was the first son born to the
Imperial family since the Emperor's youngest brother in 1798*

Russia at Peace, 253

Coastantine met Alexander in Moscow, where the King of
Prussia also arrived with his eldest son, having left Berlin
directly he heard of his grandson's birth. He passed eleven
days in exploring the city and its neighbourhood, and the
wealthy Prince Youssoupof entertained him with the two
Empresses at his palace at Archangelskoe, containing more
curiosities^ rare MSS., and works of art than all Berlin at
that period. Alexander left for St. Petersburg on June 23rd^
and was followed a few days later by the King and Imperial
family ; but they had hardly reached it when Nicholas and
his wife fell ill with the measles, and the Crown Prince pro-
longed his visit two months to see them restored to health.

" It does not seem to me,'' wrote Lord Cathcart,* August
10th, " that the visit of the King of Prussia at this Court will
produce any political effect. I believe the Emperor would
Bot have been sorry if it had been postponed, as it interfered
with many things he would have done between his return
from the provinces and his departure for Germany. It would
also have been pleasanter to have met after all discussions
had been settled, than in the midst of discussions in which
neither party was inclined to give way. Though the nego-
tiation was removed to Berlin, still messengers arrived to each
Sovereign with reports of warm and unsatisfactory discussions.
The apartments formerly occupied by the late Empress
Catherine, which had not been used or altered since long
before her demise^ were handsomely fitted up for this
occasion. Though his Majesty frequently went to the ordi-
nary parades and to the exercises at which the Emperor was
present, he seemed desirous of giving as little time to see
troops as possible, and all the great manoeuvres expected here
and at Moscow were countermanded. The King went to
look at everything worth notice and attention, including all
barracks, schools, hospitals, and manufactories, accompanied
invariably by the Emperor, who is perfectly competent to show
and explain everything to the minutest details and in the
best manner.

" The squadron at Cronstadt was reinforced, and the Emperor
^carried the King one day to that fortress and on board the

* Despatches and CorresxMndence of the Duke of Wellington. Sup-
plement.

254 Ruaiiia at Peace.

admiraFs ship in the roads. The illness of the Grand Duke
(Nicholas), followed by that of the Grand Duchess, in-
terrupted these arrangements (for various amusements), aa
the Empress's mother shut herself up in the Grand Duke's
apartments great part of the time. The Emperor seem^
now to have resumed his usual habits and hours of business,
and is making progress in getting through the accumulation
of reports which await his decision. It is very generally
believed that some changes will take place in the ministry
before the Emperor's departure, and the age and infirmity of
some of the ministers render it very necessary. . . . but the
great change is reserved for his return, when it is believed
all the governments of the empire are to be remodelled,
and that the governors are to be military with very exten-
sive powers, each to have under him a complete establish*
ment of officers for which he is to be responsible to the
Emperor, and is to report regularly on every point imme-
diately to his Imperial Majesty. ... I believe it is the only
system by which order can be preserved, or any real progress
in improvement and civilization expected, for here nothing suc-
ceeds, however wisely projected, but so long as it is under the
eye of the Sovereign and while it continues a favoured
pursuit. There are now above half a score of governors who
have been suspected or arrested for malversation since 1815.''
This system was completed in 1823, and in practice made
the Emperor if possible more thoroughly an autocrat than
before, though it was projected in the hope of checking
abuses. The ambassador says, the Emperor's speech in
Poland, and the system of colonization, excited the most
serious discontent, '^and the language used is much more
violent than could be expected in such a government as this."
The harvest had again been most abundant, and the land-
owners complained that if the German and military colonies
produced corn for exportation it would lower the price and
damage their own fortunes. The Empress-Dowager had re-
solved to go abroad with the Emperor when he went to attend
the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. Of this project. Lord
Cathcart adds, ^^ I am told that every endeavour was used to
persuade the Empress- mother to relinquish her desire of travel-
ling, to avoid the expense, but in vain ; and this determination

U

Russia at Peace. 255

has forced the Empress Elizabeth also to go abroad. She
cannot avoid reigning in the hearts of aU the people, and that
could not bnt become an object of jealousy. The' nation is
flattered by the part the Emperor takes in the politics of
Europe, and is pleased with the interview on that account;
but an outcry would be made if his Majesty were to remain
absent for pleasure. Less has been said by the Emperor on
the subject of the attention shown to the Grand Duke Michael
(during a recent visit to England) than on that of the Grand
Duke Nicholas, although the Empress-mother has said a great
deal, and what was said by the Emperor appeared to be more
studied and less in his usual open manner. Nothing can be
more correct and irreproachable than the life the Emperor
leads, as far as I can know of it ; he is devout, and reads some
chapters in the Bible every day. He is indefatigable in
printing and publishing the sacred writings through his do-
minions in every language, and accompanied by the plainest
and most useful tracts and guides for reading them he can
find in our language. He protects the missionaries, and is
easy of access on these subjects. He had two long conferences
with Mr. Way, and approved much of him without, however,
being equally sanguine in his expectations of converting the
Jews. His Majesty respects the endeavour, and is disposed
to support it and to make provision for converts. He is very
attentive to every suggestion for improving prisons and form-
ing penitentiaries, and for ameliorating the morals of the
people. His language to me on subjects is firm and manly,
as well as impressive, but I have seen no symptom of what
might be termed Methodism. He gives great protection to
the Moravians in his dominions.^'

When Alexander left Warsaw for his southern provinces
in April he was accompanied by two Austrian ofScers, a
Prince and Field Marshal, and his aide-de-camp. Count

, who came to Warsaw to congratulate him on his arrival

there, and to ask to inspect the fortifications in the Crimea. This
was readily granted, and as the Emperor had known them both
during the war with Prance, he allowed them to join his suite.
They secretly drew up a memoir of their observations and pre-
sented it to Metternich, plainly showing the under-current of
ill-feeling in Austria against Russia, between whom De Maistre

\

256 Russia at Peace.

I

I

was convinced there must soon be a war^ and from the fact of
the memoir being sent to the Duke of Wellington* it is
evident that Austria looked upon England as her future ally.
It is somewhat startling to see men in the position of the two
Austrians take upon themselves the office of spies^ and while
receiving every attention and hospitality from their Imperial
host, coolly devise the destruction of his empire. " His Majesty^s
condescension and favour/' says the memoir, " increased from
day to day. They were his uninterrupted companions, and
enjoyed the double advantage of the consideration due to
foreigners, and of the facilities which at the Emperor's express
and reiterated commands were everywhere afforded to them
for every research that they wished to make i nor was there
one occasion during the whole journey where the knowledge
of any circumstance appeared to be withheld. Their position
enabled them to collect materials, and even to request infor-
mation never before within the reach of a traveller. Prince

latterly never left the side of the Emperor, who found

a relaxation in his society from the monotony of his own
courtiers, and took pride and pleasure in exhibiting to strangers
the great institutions and im2)rovements extending over his
large empire. The habits of daily intercourse, and the
especial favour shown to them by the Emperor, enabled the

1 to become gradually more intimate with the leading

men who were their fellow travellers, and an attentive colla-
tion of their conversation with what fell from the Emperor,
and with what came progressively under their personal obser-
vation, has combined to assure them of the statements con*
tained in this memoir," to which was added a detailed picture
of the Russian army.

The travellers had "ample opportunities for obtaining
some insight into the Emperor's character and feelings.
When travelling through the empire he is exposed to daily
observation. In the course of his tour he reviewed the
navy at Cherson, Nicolaief. St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, and
Cronstadt." He seemed " well acquainted with the duties
and details of a naval officer's occupation." They assert, appa-

u

Russia at Peace. 257

rently with satisfaction^ that in spite of the new consti-
tution^ '^ the ancient hatred of the Poles towards Russia will
never under any circumstances be neutralized/^ and that an
enemy might turn this to great advantage^ but that it was
Alexaoder's object to gain them. They think the Emperor
must know he could not reign as a constitutional monarch
over Russia. There " he can be nothing but autocrat ; one
half of his subjects would have to make sacrifices almost in-
tolerable to them^ and to the mass of the people the very
word constitution would convey no definite idea.'' This
memoir having been for years in the possession of the British
Commander-in-chief, seems to have furnished the British
Grovernment with their scheme for invading Russia in the
year 1854. The authors were of opinion that the empire
was most vulnerable in the Crimea^ particularly by means of
Turkey, as the Moslem religion was professed by the Tartar
inhabitants, and for this reason Alexander was advised to
remove them to the interior of the empire. " If once taken^
it would be easily held, and if the Turks managed their
affairs well, it would always be a troublesome possession in
time of war." The Austrian oflScers thought Sevastopol
might be taken from the land side, and gave a minute
description of that fortress, and of the whole peninsula.
''The Emperor^ as if aware that such ideas must present
themselves to an attentive observer, spoke at Sevastopol
(which is excellently protected towards the sea) of the possi-
bility of taking that place ' k revers,' on which occasion he
expatiated generally on the hazardous nature of all landings
on an enemy's coast."

Alexander was advised to demolish Taganrog, Theodosia or
Kaffa being more favourably situated for a commercial seaport ;
so he crossed the estuary of the Don, from Azov, to look at it ;
but seeing how flourishing it was, he refused to Usten to such
a proposal. '' Aratchaief is his only confidant and immediate
implement in whatever concerns the empire internally. Yol-
konski is his military deputy, and for his European connec-
tion Capo d'Istria j . . . but Yolkonski's hold on the Emperor
is rather through his personal attachment and the force of
habit, in which respect he succeeded to the influence of Count
Tolstoi. The Emperor esteems Yeromolofs capacity as a

VOL. III. 8

258 Ruma at Peace.

soldier beyond that of any other of his oflScers, but he hardly
likes him personally. He, Vassilschief, Raiewsky, Voronzov,
Diebitsch, Toll, Lambert, Witte, Menzikof,* Orlof, and Kupelon
are the most distinguished at Court and among the generals/'
Alexander was believed to like Voronzov and Count Peter
Pahlen.

" The Empress- mother is in the habit of exercising a certain
degree of influence in public matters. The retired habits of
the reigning Empress enables her to maintain an influential
position, and she must ever be a person of some importance
to any one who proposes playing a part at this Court. Her
influence, however, extends in no shape or degree over the
Emperor himself, who has long since withdrawn from the
guardianship she would willingly have continued to wield.
Among the Grand Dukes, Nicholas stands highest. He is
heir to the throne, and has formed himself for his high destiny,
whereas his two brothers are sheer corporals; not but that
Nicholas also has a decided preference for military affairs. It
is di£Bcult to say what are the political opinions of a prince
who systematically re-echoes what the Emperor says, but so
much is certain, that both Nicholas and Constantine dislike
Austria. The last, indeed, is often profuse of civilities to
Austrian officers, but chiefly on account of his Imperial
Highnesses early recollection of the campaign of 1799, when
he prides himself on the service he has seen, and respecting
which he loves to display the powers of his extraordinary
memory. Notwithstanding her good and amiable qualities,
the Grand Duchess Nicholas is not popular, much owing to
her aversion to the Greek religion. Should she have fortitude
and cleverness enough to naturalize herself in Russia without
the sacrifice of her German principles, she will certainly when
on the throne become a person of great importance.

^' Alexander is autocrat in the strictest sense of the word,
and he knows well to what precise point he can be so. He
loves his country, is proud of it, and jealous of its glory. His
opinions concerning its spirit and the tendency of its character
are clear and definexl, while he considers himself destined to
raise it to a high pitch of greatness ; and the promotion of this
design is the goal to which all his exertions are directed. The

• Celebrated in 1854.

Itussia at Peace. 259

reserved part it is the Emperor's option to act in foreign
politics is the result of forethought and calculation^ and not
natural to him. Let us not be misled in our judgment on his
real and secret • opinions by his religious tendency^ his pro-
claimed principles of political morality^ or his Liberal doctrines.
In the good he confers so largely on his empire the principle
of aristocracy is ever uppermost^ and in his relations with
Europe engrossing influence is his first object : he is a despot
towards his own subjects^ and a conqueror towards Europe.
.... Whoever has passed any length of time in his society^ and
closely watched the ebullitions of his natural temper (which^
however^ seldom break out^ as he is almost ever master of
himself) y and also the effect which his presence, and still more^
the slightest spark of anger, has on all those by whom he is
surrounded — any such observer must see in the Emperor the
essence of a despot ; nor can he be misled as to his ambitious
sentiments^ whether in regard to Austria alone or generally to
Europe. Such an observer discovers the primary object of
the Emperor's plan of government is to place in its strongest
li^ht the subserviency of political Europe to Russia, and his
own undeuiable influence abroad, holding up these to his sub-
jects as the fruits of the sacrifices and exertions made by them
in the late troublesome and stormy times.''

The author of this memoir seems willing to forget that con-
tinental Europe was reaping the fruits of its own narrow and
selfish policy, when it had originally fallen so easily into the
French snares. Its princes had not exerted themselves to re-
cover their own independence till urged on by Russia, whom
they only obeyed through fear ; so that having permitted them-
selves to become vassals of Napoleon, and be dragged on by
his armies when he chose to lead them into Russia, they were
included in the Russian conquest of the French Empire,
and had placed themselves in the position of vassals of the
Czar. Alexander had neither robbed their towns, nor levied
indemnities^ but he had not the less conquered Europe ; and
when his people demanded some tangible result as the reward
of the weary campaigns of 1813-14, it was not surprising that
he satisfied them by representing the real and overwhelming
influence acquired by their own government.

" It is impossible to be blind to his Imperial Majesty's great

s 2

260 Russia at Peace.

qualities. His extreme harshness and severity^ even in trifles
(the result oftentimes of his loye for military discipline)^ his
' exigence ' towards all around him^ his taking his own will as
his only rule of conduct^ will not in Bussia alienate the
affections of his people. He understands his country and
subjects^ and possesses to an extraordinary degree the art of
leading them on to the greatest personal devotion and sacri-
fices. A word of condescension at parade, an order conferred,
or the slightest mark of Imperial favour, will sometimes suffice.
He furnishes and deals out recompenses with systematic
publicity, nor is the occasional kindness of his manner less
remarkable and impressive than the ebullitions of passion.
He raises men from the lowest classes by rapid degrees, while
he never fears to humiliate a grandee. Under the mask of
quiet uniformity of character there lies the power of adapting
himself where and whenever he thinks it worth while, to the
most varied positions, whether as towards men or circtun-
stances. As his position is varied, he is no longer the same
man ; it requires the slightest provocation to rouse him to
unbridled anger, especially if there should lurk under the fault
committed a dereliction from his own principles, or a breach
of that iron discipline with which he loves to conduct civil as
well as military government. Nothing can be more meritorious
than the ene/gy, activity, and perseverance with wWch he
follows up— even into the smallest details — every branch of
the internal administration under his eye. The hospitals,*
poor-houses, foundling hospitals, and houses for the reception of
destitute women, are all on an efficient and, indeed, magni-
ficent footing. Public education is a favourite object, and he
is in regular official intercourse with Prince Galitzin, who is
at the head of that department, and for whom he has a great
regard. The prisons are established with much humanity,
and little more than guarded barracks, as by law the culprit
only remains there pending the trial. The punishment of

• The Quakers, Allen and Grellet, who spent two months in 1818 in
St. PeterBDiirg, call the largest hospital there " a perfect model. I have
never seen it eqnaUed anjrwhere." At the head of each bed the patient's
name was neatlj written in white chalk, and the name of the disease in
Latin instead of Russian, at the Emperor's suggestion, who, going through
it, observed it mi^ht have a depressing effect on some invalids to know
the nature of their complaints.

H

Bmsia at Peace. 261

death is abolished^ and replaced by banishment to Siberia, to
the mines, or to the quarantines, and also by corporal pnnish-
ment. Everywhere in Petersburg and in the rapid journey
through Russia, did the undersigned come upon the traces of
his Majesty's especial protection of trade. The sums and
benefits conferred on Odessa^ the promising state of manufac-
ture, of machinery, and especially of steam engines, which have
even found their way into Siberia. Europe has but an im-
perfect notion of the manufactures in Bussia, for which the
Oovemment attract artificers in great numbers firom England
and Germany. The mint, the Imperial glass and plate-glass
manufactory, that for paper at Peterhof, the spinning estab-
lishment at Alexandrovsky, the war and marine arsenals, are
magnificent establishments. Remarkable likewise are the
Exchange, where business to the amount of 200,000,000 of
roubles is every year transacted, the various canals, the navi-
gation on the Volga and the Neva, where several versts are
covered with shipping. Much of the good done is so far the
result of chauce, that it is often the accidental consequence of
his Majestjr's personal and rapid discrimination ; thus it happens
that many trifling evils are corrected while greater abuses are
left untouched : every measure of this kind is carried into
quicker execution, as the severity with which the Emperor
exacts implicit obedience from those to whom he directly
issues his orders, is the measure of their conduct towards their
inferiors/' Foreigners were astonished at the cleanly appear-
ance of the towns of the interior. '^ On this subject his Ma-
jesty is severe in what he requires from the governors. Count
Aratchaief has introduced on his estates a plan for teaching
his peasants an improved style of building, less subject to
danger from fire,'' the scourge of ordinary Russian villages.
" The artillery is perfect, especially the horse artillery."
Four thousand cadets, many under five years old, and 46,000
soldiers' children were being educated in the Gk)vemment
schools in 1818. The staff establishment under Prince
Yolkonski for the scientific instruction of the soldier, " though
of very recent origin, has already arrived, through the deter-
mined will and profuse liberality of his Imperial Majesty, at a
wonderful degree of precision."

" Russia has made wonderful progress since 1812 in military

262 Russia at Peace.

matters, mainly attributable to the iron severity of Aratehaief
and the perseverance of the Emperor. The military hospitals^
thanks to Aratehaief, are in perfect order. The origin of the
faults committed in late campaigns is to be traced to the
vitiated materials of which the higher classes of the army are
composed ^* — (the Emperor had enlarged on the abuses, the
want of order and discipline, the defective system of training,
and the moral indolence among the officers formerly prevailing
in the Russian army; — '^ and when the passionate tendency of
the mind of the Emperor to military affairs is taken into con«
sideration, as well as the number of intrigues to be found in a
Russian head-quarters, ever ready to take some personal ad-
vantage of any reverse, it is to be expected that in the contin-
gency of a war these causes will be again at work/'

The Count gives a long description of the military colonies.
" Formerly,'' as the Emperor expressed himself, " the recruits
came from immense distances, tired and often too late for the
service to which they were to have been applied ,- now the largest
portion of the army will be derived from the same tract of
country which will become their home, their property, and the
scene of their vocation as soldiers and citizens. If allowed
time for maturing his plan, there can be little doubt of its
success, and he will bequeath the empire to his successor with
double of its former military power." A colony was established
at Yosnosensk with eight regiments of the Cossacks of the
Ukraine, who sent their Hetman, Count Cantacuzene,. to re-
monstrate with the Emperor ; but he returned " infected with
the plan." The inhabitants of the district who were Ma-
hometans would not shave their beards, alter their costume, or
receive Christians among them ; and Count de Witt told the
Austrians he was on thorns during the Emperor's visit, lest
there should be some act of violence on the part of the men.
" Neither Capo d'Istria nor his master are friendly towards
England, its Sovereign, or Government ; and this feeling is
the more remarkable as it is the only unfriendly prejudice
towards another State to which the minister now gives undis-
guised utterance. The prejudice in favour of everything Russian^
till lately a leading feature of the King of Prussia's opinions,
has sensibly decreased (Prussia had been forced against her
will to yield to Russia on a mercantile point a fortnight

i L

Russia at Peace. 268

before)^ and to this change may be traced the indifference that
marks his conduct and observations at St. Petersburg^ par-
ticularly at reviews and all military exhibitions ; the Crown
Prince has little short of a positive aversion for all military
details^ and both omit no opportunity of testifying in general

conversation, in their manner towards Prince and

Count , and indirectly through the general tone of their

suite^ how friendly are their sentiments towards (Austria),

and Count has on several occasions remarked that this

feeling has not been the less loudly expressed in the casual
presence of Russian officers. The Crown Prince is eminently
anti-Bussian, and Colonel Schenck, his confidential aide-de-
camp, as well as General Witzleben, often express their de-
cided opinion that nothing short of a firm union with England
can hereafter insure Austria and Prussia against a possible
abuse of the colossal power of Russia.'^ The Emperor dwelt on
his unalterable personal attachment to the King and Crown
Prince, who was not popular at St. Petersburg, but deprecated
the King^s diminished attention to military matters as pre-
judicial to the Prussian army, and blamed the Crown Prince's
absolute indifference on those points.

'^ The commission for economy has absolute control over
the expenses for all materials for war and equipment. If an
employe is caught at a fraud the punishment is enlistment in
the ranks, even if the offender was a general officer. The
cavalry is excellent, the clothing of the whole army good, and
the Emperor active and energetic in directing the many and
various improvements carried on in the interior,'^ &c.

In the year 1817, corn to the value of 125,000,000 silver
roubles was exported, and both in that and the following
summer the amount of paper money was reduced, and nearly
14,000,000 roubles paid off from the national debt. A loss
was sustained in a huge wooden building on the Neva, fitted up
with machinery and workshops for various branches of the
navy, containing accommodation for 3000 sailors, which was
burned in 1818. The same year a commercial treaty was
formed between Russia and Sweden on behalf of Finland, and
(treat Britain invited Russia to enter into her league with
Spain and Holland for the protection of trade against the
Barbary corsairs. In July the States Assembly of Livonia

264 Russia at Peace.

was opened by the Governor Panlucci, who in a speech ex-
horted the nobility to follow the example set them by Courland
and Esthonia, and emancipate their serfs. The marshal of
the nobility, in the name of his order, replied they should feel
happy to meet the wishes of his Imperial Majesty. The same
message was delivered to Lithuania, but the nobles returned
for answer, they would wait till the example was shown by
their elder sister Russia. The descendants of those nobles now
blame Alexander for not forcing them to carry out his
wish, when they look at the industrious peasants of Livonia,
who have had more than half a century to learn their duties
as free men ; but without the co-operation of the nobility,
famine and insurrections must then have been the result of
emancipation in Lithuania, not yet recovered from its suffer-
ings in 1812. Alexander still hoped to place her under the
same constitutional government as Poland, when convinced
that the Poles would continue faithfal to Russia; and to a
foreign statesman he said that Russia was great enough to
bear the sacrifice. But every year that elapsed since he had
bestowed the constitution showed him more fully the impos-
sibility of satisfying the Polish self-love, and the aspirations of
the Polish nobles for their ancient oligarchy, consistently with
justice to the Polish lower classes and his duties to his own
empire. Already the Russians murmured loudly at the sums
of money which passed from the Emperor's private purse and
the public funds, besides Constantine's entire fortune, to the
restoration of Poland, while not a farthing of her revenue came
to Russia. They were discontented that he should spend a
month of every year in Warsaw and Vilna, and a formidable
conspiracy, silently gathering adherents throughout Russia,
made this partiality one of its chief grounds of complaint
against the Sovereign. And yet in 1830 the Polish Assembly
could justify the insurrection against Russia, by asserting that
Alexander was not sincere in his desire for their welfare, a
charge styled as *' the blackest ingratitude '^ by the Emperor
Nicholas. The revival of every branch of industry, the creation
of manufactures, good macadamized roads crossing the country
on all sides, and rich crops ripening on a fertile soil where
unhealthy marshes formerly stood ; well-built villages in the
place of wretched cabins^ improved and embellished towns^

y.

Russia at Peace, 265

paved streets^ a bank formed from capital famished by the
Emperor for the development of trade^ and flourishing finances
in the place of an empty treasury without credit ; a magnificent
army^ vast arsenals^ rivers made navigable^ a native university^
with the scientific chaii's occupied by skilful foreign professors,
primary schools, gymnasiums, schools for young girls, military
colleges, theatres, charitable establishments and asylums, and
an extensive foreign commerce ; these were the benefits which,
in 1830, Alexander had bequeathed to Poland, and which en-
abled her for a year and a half to defy the whole power of
Russia."^

• "The kingdom of Poland," writes Marmont (who had known it
during Napoleon s ascendency) in 1826, " already bears the froits of an
enlightened administration. Fine roads in all parts. The army is the
best paid in Enrope. 1 came from Breitz to Warsaw on a magnificent
high road, and a similar one existed as far as Kalisch.** Compare his
account with Wraxall, Coxe, Tweddell, and other writers on Poland in
the last century.

CHAPTER VI.
1818—1822.

CONSPIRACIES AND KEVOLtTTIONS.

THE CoDgress of Aiz-la-Chapelle was summoned for
September 20th, when a great concourse of strangers
repaired to the ancient city : sovereigns, diplomatists, financiers,
singers, artists, and even a female sibyl in Mdlie. Lenormand,
formerly patronized by Napoleon and Josephine, but who now
met with very little regard. Alexander paid rapid visits on
his road to some of his western towns, and arrived in Berlin
for the last time on September 9th, anxious to settle the con-
ference as quickly as possible, and return to Rus^a. He was
joined by the Empress on her road to Baden, and the Empress-
mother at the same time undertook a journey to visit her
three married daughters in Weimar, Stuttgart, and Brussels.
At Berlin he assisted at the inauguration of the national
monument on the Kreuzberg, remarkable for utterly ignoring
the fact of Prussia's allies, or that the battles it commemorated
were in some instances gained entirely by Russian soldiers,
and he reached Aix-la-Chapelle on the 28th, having stayed at
Frankfort on his road^ and met the Emperor of Austria at
Mayence. He received a letter from Las Cases, one of Na-
poleon^s companions at St. Helena, urging him to rescue the
ex-Emperor from British hands, but its exaggerated terms
destroyed any effect it might otherwise have produced. The
Count having returned to Europe, came to Frankfort to seek
an interview with the Czar. '^ It was the surest means of
accomplishing my object, everybody said/^ he writes, "and
they considered it wrong not to attempt it,'* but on his
arrival he was deterred by the fear that the interview might be
useless — perhaps he was unable to obtain it — so contented
himself with talking to Alexander's generals, though he had

I

Conspiradea and Bevolutions, 267

much desired '^the favour of approaching the first of the
monarchs, of conversing with him of whom Napoleon said
on his rock, ' If I die here, he is my heir in Europe/ "* It
was an imfavourable moment to suggest the release of any
political agitator, for Prance seemed already on the verge of a
revolution, and the attempt to assassinate the Duke of Wel-
lington proved to be the first act in a plot for destroying
every Sovereign who took part in Napoleon's fall. It was
intended to seize Alexander, cutting the traces of his horses
when he arrived on the French frontier to visit his army of
occupation after the Congress, to compel him under pain of
instant death to sign a paper engaging to release Napoleon,
and establish his son as Emperor of Prance with Maria Louisa
for Regent, and also to send a courier to the Emperor of
Austria to obtain his signature. The conspirators were
variously stated to number 600, 1000, and 1600 men, and a
few went to Aix-la-Chapelle in the hope of a favourable oppor-
tunity for carrying out their design; but as this did not
occur, the borders of Prance were next proposed. The Duke
of Wellington, as commander of the allied army of occupation
(which terminated November 30th), superintended the reviews
held before the Royal and Imperial guests, and also represented
Great Britain at the Congress, with the aid of Castlereagh and
Cunning. His correspondence shows the care he took to pre-
vent any catastrophe during the various excursions which
Alexander made both in Prance and Belgium. He wrote to
the British and foreign generals under his command to be
ready for a review at Sedan, and to Sir Henry Pane that, as
the first critics in Europe were to be present, they must have
their regiments in the best order. The Emperor intended to
pass three days at Valenciennes in the middle of October.
" We must dine the two first days at four exactly, and have a
play in the evening on the. three days immediately after the
review, and a ball at night.^'t To Baron Nagell, the minister
of the King of the Netherlands, he wrote on the subject of
the precautions to be taken when the Emperor went to Brus-
sels to see his sister. " Whether the reported conspiracy is
true or false, a certain degree of ridicule attends the pre-

* Las Cases. M6moirea de Ste. H^^ne.
t WeUington Corre6i>ondeiice.

268 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

cautions respecting which I wrote to you yesterday^ and I
know the Emperor will not be pleased if they are adopted,
however necessary they may be. ... I would advise the King
to assemble as much cavalry and gendarmerie as he can with
convenience near the high road from Li^ge to Brussels/^ &c.
After receiving further information of the plot, the Duke
writes two days later, that he had laid the details before
Alexander, '^ who desired me to express his acknowledgment
to the King and to your Excellency, and his confidence in
whatever measures his Majesty may think proper to order.''
He adds that, as several of the leaders were arrested, and
others fled, the scheme will probably never be carried into
execution. ^' Under these circumstances, I recommend you
not to place any troops on the road, more particularly as I
know such a measure will be highly disagreeable to the
Emperor. They might be drawn to the neighbourhood of the
road, . . . and patrol it on Sunday and Monday, and early
on Tuesday ; but I am certain it is desirable in such cases as
this not to show unnecessary precautions, and it is better
with such miscreants as these with whom we have the mis-
fortune to deal, to incur some risk rather than appear to be
afraid of them. I am certain the Emperor will not like to see
an assemblage of troops on the road, and will positively refuse
to allow himself to be escorted.'' Three days later, when
more discoveries were made, the Duke writes fit>m Aix-la-
Chapelle, that General Tripp haring arrived, he told him his
plan for disposing the troops " to guard the Emperor of Russia
on his road to BruxeUes, and at the same time that his Imperial
Majesty should have no knowledge of his being so guarded.
He has the King's orders to offer the Emperor an escort, and,
if the Emperor should decline, they will guard him as I have
mentioned. It will be necessary that you should turn your
attention to some measures of the same description during his
Imperial Majesty's residence at Bruxdles. In general, he
sends away his guard of honour, and keeps only two sentries ;
but General Tripp might arrange with Prince Volkonski, to
whom I will talk upon the subject, that the proposed number
of sentries might be placed round the house his Imperial
Majesty will inhabit at night. He is in the habit of walking
alone in the daytime, and I have no doubt will frequently

\
1

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 269

cross the park from his own house to that of the Empress-
Dowager and Princess of Orange^ and it will be desirable to
have a sort of surveillance in the Park to prevent crowds of
improper people from collecting there. It will not be difficult
to observe and guard the streets at nighty as it will of course
be known where he will pass every evening during his stay/'
8cc. The Duke also wrote to General TVipp, to tell him to
prepare a guard at Maestricht and Tongres round the houses
where the Emperor would be lodged.

Alexander took Constantine and Michael with him to the
Congress^ while Nicholas and his wife^ for the first time^ pre-
sided over the Court in Bussia. Ouvarof, Volkonski, Prince
Menzikofy Colonel Danilevski^ Boutourliii^ and two more aides-
de-camp^ Wylie, the Emperor's valet, and a courier, formed
the Imperial suite. Oeaeral Paskievitch attended Michael,
and Constantine brought two aides-de-camp and a secretary.
Several of the same ministers were present on behalf of the
great Powers as at Vienna, but instead of Talleyrand, the Due
de Richelieu represented France. He intended to quit the
Cabinet, and the Ring, after vainly endeavouring to dissuade
him, wrote to Wellington requesting him to ask Alexander to
use his influence with the minister, and prevail on him to re-
main. " I hope,'' says the Duke, in answer, " that the
Emperor's intervention will preserve to your Majesty the ser-
vices of a minister whose loyal character has contributed so
much to conciliate all the interests of Europe with those of
France. I presented myself to the Emperor as soon as I
could after his return from Spa, and his Majesty, after read-
ing your letter, showed the most lively interest in it, and
he assured me he will take the first occasion to speak with the
Due de Richelieu." At St. Helena, Napoleon said, that
while Pozzo di Borgo was the Russian ambassador at Paris, he
felt convinced Alexander knew Louis's throne to be in peril ;
bat whenever he replaced that minister by a Russian, he should
be sure Alexander knew Louis's position to be secure.* Na-
poleon was well aware that the Corsican continued his
inveterate foe, and by diligently tracing out the plots of the
Jacobins, who had formed a junction with the Bonapartists,
once their deadliest enemies, he was at this time the King's

• 0*Meara*s Voice from St Helena.

270 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

greatest support. When Louis gave his instructions to
Richelieu^ he mournfully impressed on him that^ cost what
it mighty he must procure the complete evacuation of the
French territory. '^ Tell my allies how difScult my govern-
ment will be so long as it can be reproached with the mis-
fortunes of the country ; and yet it was not I, but Bonaparte,
who brought the x\llies upon us. Tell the Emperor Alexander
that he has it in his power to render a greater service to my
house than in 1814 or 1815 ; after having restored legitimacy,
he can restore the national independence.^'

Richelieu^s interview with Alexander was most satisfactory.
The bankers, Hope, Baring, and Rothschild, were willing to
advance the necessary loans to France, and the Czar had
already agreed with his allies to withdraw their troops. " Your
nation is brave and loyal,^* he said to Richelieu. " She sup-
ports her misfortunes with courage and resignation. Can you
answer for her ? Do you think that the Government is suffi-
ciently established for the evacuation ? I only ask your word.
I do not fear the development of liberal principles in France.
I am liberal myself, but I hate the Jacobins ; take care not to
throw yourself into their arms. Europe will have nothing
more to do with them. An alliance founded on morality
and religion is the only thing which can save the social
order.*'

In the hope of giving Louis some moral support, the allied
Powers signed a memorial in which they invited him to take
part in all their present and future deliberations, and the
mutual guarantee of the rights of nations, and thus publicly
reinstated France in her position as one of the great Powers.
Pozzo di Borgo drew up a memoir for his master to express
his approval of the acts of the British Government during
Napoleon's detention at St. Helena, which had lately been
made a subject of discussion in the British Parliament, and on
which Alexander had received various petitions from the Bona-
partists. " I must render justice," writes Lord Castlereagh
to Lord Bathurst, " to the Emperor and to his faiseura in all
this business, that they have been most handsomely anxious to
court an irreparable breach with the Jacobins of all countries,
and to uphold everything you have done. This piece will
bring all the democratic fire of Europe upon the Emperor, and

Conspiracies and Fevoluiions. 27 1

we must stand by him accordingly. This plot at Brussels
is sufficient to prove that they begin to discover his Imperial
Majeaty is not disposed to enlist in their service/'*

It was Napoleon's chief object to avoid being forgotten in
Europe^ and he kept up the popular interest in him by his
innumerable complaints against the British officials. He
was allowed every indulgence compatible with preventing his
escape^ the subject of constant machinations on the part of
his attendants ; and he told the Austrian Commissioner that
he could easily eflfect it, but could not return to the world
as only a private person ; and his doctor, O'Meara, and Las
Cases were dismissed from St. Helena on suspicion of lending
aid to such a design. While only recently in receipt of
10,000 gold doubloons in addition to the handsome income
allowed for his support, he pretended he was so poverty-
stricken that he was forced to sell his silver plate to procure
the ordinary necessaries of life ; while every officer about him
drank a bottle of claret daily (at 6/. per dozen without the
duty), and he freely indulged himself both in this and cham-
pagne, he tried to make his poor, simple admirers in France
believe that he was kept on actual prison rations. Though
not intemperate, he was by no means the ascetic some have
endeavoured to prove, and by his own account to Antommarchi
always ate plentifully, though he preferred plain food, and after
his principal meals drank several glasses of claret, less than an
English pint, and one or two of champagne in addition when
he wanted a stimulant. Before he abdicated he had adopted
the habit of drinking strong green tea and brandy very fre-
quently during the day to keep himself awake, but he seems
to have discontinued it when he arrived in a tropical climate,
tliough he still took quantities of snuff. After most un-
dignified disputes with the much-enduring Governor of St.
Helena, he refused to take any exercise, to avoid being inspected
by an English officer, as there were express orders from the
British Government that he should be seen every day ; and
this voluntary privation lasting four years soon told upon
his health, which even Las Cases allows was excellent during
his first six months' sojourn in the island, although a man who
was suited by the snows of Russia might naturally feel some

* Gastlereagh Correspondence.

272 Conspiracies and HevoluHons.

inconvenience from the warmer regions of the south. Depend-
ing on his parole^ which he readily gave, the governor ex-
tended his privileges ; but findiitg he immediately broke it, he
was reduced to a circuit of eight miles, beyond which he
might have traversed the whole island if accompanied by an
English officer, but he scorned to avail himself of either this
companionship or the more limited promenade. Lord Holland,
his admirer throughout his career, made an inquiry in the
House of Lords into these complaints, but was answered by
Lord Bathurst, who showed that eleven dozen bottles of cham-
pagne and claret, the most expensive that could be procured,
were consumed by Napoleon and eight of his people weekly,
and that his table was kept with proportionate liberality ; that
while he complained of not being allowed to have books, he
had sent a list he required, and they had been forwarded* to
him at the Government expense, though they cost more than
1400/., without the carriage. A new house was buijt for him
at the cost of 60,000/., because he did not like Longwood, and
then he would not inhabit it; and far from preventing his
correspondence with his family, only one member had written
to him, and that was Joseph, whose letter was forwarded im-
mediately. Alexander, with much justice, preferred to believe
the statements of the British ministers to those of Napoleon^s
relations and followers, who did not cease to apply to him,
comparing Napoleon's detention to that of Ferdinand of Spain
at Bayonne, and to one of these he said, ''we must not
believe all the idle tales circulated by interested people."
However, he spoke to the British plenipotentiaries on the ad-
visability of allowing him to have a priest attached to his
establishment, and also a physician chosen by his own family;
and this advice was adopted, and Dr. Antommarchi, selected
by the Bonapartes, was sent to reside at St. Helena.*

* The cause of Napoleon's death was quite a party question : his friends
asserting that it was entirely due to the climate of 8t. Belena, and his
enemies that it was hereditary disease probably coming on before he
arrived in the island. A modification of both statements seems to be the
truth. An English military doctor asserted that he had never seen any
case of internal cancer similar, except with inveterate dram drinkers. It
was a rapid species of the complaint, which would develop itself and
destroy life very quickly in a hot climate ; so that if it had come on in
Europe he would probably have lingered longer, for, by his own account,
he felt no pain from it till the spring of 1821, and only suspected its

i

f

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 273

Castlereagli was not mistaken about the democratic indigna-
tion at Alexander's supporting the British Government, and
from this period those who cannot discern between the friends
of constitutional government, the opponents of tyranny, the pre- .
servers of public order, and the revolutionists who would upset
all authority and excite insurrections merely for the sake of
becoming tyrants themselves, have accused him of departing
from the liberal opinions of his youth j but, as Lamartine says^
" he may have feared the excesses, but never the lights of
liberty,'^ and even Napoleon can be quoted as a witness to the
need there was at that time for Alexander's influence in the
maintenance of order on the Continent. ''In ten years
Europe will be Republican or Cossack,'' said the ex-Emperor,
and considering the connection between the Bonapartists and
republicans, few were more likely to know. It became
Cossack in one sense, that its Cabinets were often guided by
Alexander's counsel, and saved from attack by the knowledge
that his enormous army could come forward at any moment
to their support. It was the only condition of their existence,*
and without that influence the world might have seen once
more the confusion and events of the years 1789 to 1814,
instead of being allowed time to recover itself and increase in
civilization and material prosperity. Was the social order to
be overturned merely to gratify the poverty-stricken oflScers who,
discharged firom the French and Italian armies, now hoped to
gain wealth and hoaours in the revolution which would entail
the confiscation of the property of the rich, or to realize the
fantastic dreams of the German students as they smoked pipe
after pipe over their jugs of beer ? Fear, selfish indifierenccj
or base ingratitude could alone have quarrelled with that
influence even if it chose to give itself the name of the Holy
Alliance.

Probably the Jacobins only made use of Napoleon's name as a
rallying point, otherwise, by keeping up a constant agitation in
Europe, they were his most cruel enemies. He truly said (April,
1816), if Europe was wise and order re-established everywhere,

nature (though his father had died of it) about a month befor^..l^
own decease. His habits, already described, so prejndicip.1 to health, and
the relaxing climate, doubtless weakened him, and predisposed his consti-
tution to an attack.

VOL. III. T

274 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

he would not be worth the money and trouble he cost at St.
Helena, and they would release him, though it might not be
for four or five years. His object failed when he tried to sow
distrust between the Allies, and excite a dread of Russia by
telling the English commissioners Alexander was false and
insincere ; and as the bitter feeling against his rival which the
Russian triumph had engendered began to wear away, he could
speak of him with greater justice.* '* Alexander is a generous
man,'' he said to O'Meara j " he would have taken a pleasure
in treating me well had I given myself up to him ;" and later
to his French attendants, that he knew no one so well fitted to
be his successor. " A great heart, a noble soul, skilful as a
Greek of the Lower Empire, proud and superb as an old
Roman, he has often been my enemy, but I have always
admired him. He is a true Caesar. Alexander would be the
only man capable of carrying out my work in Europe if, instead
of being a Russian, he was a Frenchman/'t Even at Fontaine-
bleau, while smarting under his forced abdication, he admitted
' that if " he were not Napoleon, he should like to be Alexander/'
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle was dull compared with that
of Vienna, and Alexander spent his leisure moments in visit-
ing the antiquities at Cologne, and other places of interest in
the neighbourhood. The Duke of Kent, who had lately married
Constantine's sister-in-law, the Princess Victoria of Saxe-
Coburg, and was living in Germany, came to see the Emperor,
and introduced to him the artist Dawc, who went to St.
Petersburg to paint the principal Russian generals. Alex-
ai^er had an hour's interview with Clarkson, October 10th, on

• CJwtlereagt wrote, October 4.th, 1818, from Aix-la-Chapelle, " My

belief is the ±iiDX>6ror of Rnssia is in the main in earnest in what he

^ys. . . *,* %. have reason to think he has been led to believe there axe

secret enffag^anents existing between Great Britain and Austria; bat

with all those;' i£^;9i3 working ixpon a jealous and haughty mind, he means

\fi pursue a pea^^^d^li^y : he aisis at sway, but has no desire to change

iJiis connectiopq, or tcwbt the revolutionary spirit in Europe more active.

JtObserve Prince Mettt^mich's suspicions are much allayed, and now prin-

''^^dlly point against jbhe Russian agents. He mentioned to me the

"^Qt^^ personal c Haiawter as the only guarantee against the danger

^W- ' TWWer Upc *^^he whole, it seems working as we could wish ;

^V^^ftBic""^ * T \^ JZ. mwBe the sentiments of attachment of which

oi *^ ^ ^ ve only t^ enco.^ ^^^ towards each other, and which, I believe.

I

Conspiracies and Bevolutions. 275

the subject of the slave trade^ and also saw Robert Owen^
whose peace principles he said he entirely shared.

When the treaty for the irainediate evacuation of France
was signed, the Czar went for a single day to Paris to present
it to the King, as he did not wish to review his armies on
Louis's territories, and utterly ignore him. The attention was
appreciated by the infirm old man, to whom a journey of nearly
400 miles, merely to make a morning visit, seemed a wonderful
exertion, and in a confidential writing, dated December, 1818,
he alludes to if^ as one of " the happiest moments '' of his life.
" Without speaking of the extreme courtesy he showed in
coming to see me, it was difficult not to be pleased with his
conversation. He not only entered into all my thoughts, but
he uttered them before I had time to express them. He
highly approved of my system of government and line of con-
duct since September 5th, 1816," &c. "I have seen the Emperor
pass," writes Madame Svetchine from Paris, on October 3l8t.
" No one besides the King and Princesses can boast of more.
The Princess Bagration is loud on his cruelty of not giving us
even one night. As for me, I should have been satisfied with
one day. He has been gracious. He is always handsome,
and I thought him grown stouter."

After the reviews at Valenciennes, Alexander returned to
Aix-la-Chapelle, where he arrived in the middle of the night,
and the next morning called informally on the Duke of Welling-
ton, at breakfast with his aides-de-camp, to thank him for
his attention to the Russian troops while under his command,
and to offer him the b&ton of a field marshal of Russia. Early
in November a review of the Russian troops was held in the
neighbourhood of Sedan, which Lord Paimerston attended as a
spectator, and has left rather a lively picture of a dinner-party
at the Russian head-quarters. '^ When dinner was announced,
the Emperor took Lady William Russell, the King of Prussia
took Lady Worcester ; Alexander beckoned for the King to
go first ; the King refused, the Emperor insisted, the King was
obstinate, and the ladies looked foolish. The company expected
a battle royal, when at last Alexander gave a vehement stamp
with his foot, and the King, probably recollecting that his own

* Lamartine's Histoire de la EostauratioD.

i2

276 Cofupiracies and RevoluHona.

cudgellers were at Sedan, a long day's journey off, consented
to take the post of honour and go first. The second day the
King said, that as he had given way before, he hoped Alex-
ander would do him the favour to take his proper place, which
was graciously assented to/'* A criticf says of this story, "There
were only four ladies present. Lady William Bussell, Lady Wor-
cester, Lady Francis Cole, and Lady Hervey. One of these,
remarkable for quick perception and accurate memory, has
retained a different impression of the scene. She says the
dinner being at the Russian head-quarters, the Czar considered
himself at home, and therefore requested the King to go first ;
that the contest was one of smiling courtesy on both sides,
that there was no display of temper, no stamping of feet, and
that the ladies did not look foolish, which most assuredly one
of them never did.''

Wellington took the opportunity of a solitary ride with
Alexander (to a newly-invented pontoon bridge) to speak
highly of Voronzov. Lord Palmerston says, "The whole
Prussian system, dress, equipment, drill, &c., is copied from
the Russian, and when a new regulation is issued at St. Peters-
burg, a copy is immediately sent to Berlin, that the King may
have the benefit of it."t

On leaving Prance Alexander's army sold some of its guns,
horses, and war material, to avoid the expense of transport.
The Russian soldiers returned to their native country by sea ;
but before the Congress was dissolved, on the earnest solicita-
tion of the smaller States in Germany, the Allies signed an
agreement in view of the strength of the French revolutionary-
party and the weakness of the Boui*bons, that in case of an
outbreak among the French threatening the peace of the
Continent, the British army should assemble at Brussels to
overawe the insurgents, the Prussians at Cologne, the Austrians
at Stuttgart, and the Russians at Mayence, after the lapse of
three months, on account of its great distance. A mere
demonstration would, it was thought, be sufficient, without
bloodshed. Alexander paid his visit to Brussels, wherei his
mother had preceded him, astonishing the Belgians by her
magnificence and liberality. She deposited 40,000/. sterling

• Diary in France, 1815-18. f Quarterly Review, Jan. 1872.

J Diary in France, 1815-18.

CoTiapiracies and Bevolutiona. 277

in the bank to pay the expenses of her visit, and her son-in-
law, the Prince of Orange, dressed in the Russian uniform,
acted as her dutiful chamberlain the whole time she remained
— no sinecure, as she preserved the activity of seventeen.

There is something insidiously captivating in republican
opinions to the generous but inexperienced mind, who fancies
it recognizes beneath their subtle exterior the patron of intellect
and the friend of the poor ; and as a youth entering upon life
is apt to take as his model some long-established man of
fashion, so the ardent youth of Russia, introduced for the first
time to the feelings and opinions of Western Europe, were
inclined to copy the old revolutionists, who still remained
very numerous in France, and whose influence had in reality
stirred the world far more than Napoleon's victories. The
leaders of the republicans assiduously courted the ofiScers
attached to the Russian contingent, and the very novelty of
their doctrines made them particularly attractive to men
reared under a despotism. With the fickleness of the Mus-
covite character, they forgot the results of the French revolu-
tion, which spread blood and ashes through their own empire
and well-nigh destroyed France.* Thrown among the Bona*
partis ts, they imbibed their opinions, and began to conceive a
profound admiration for the man who asserted that Russia's
strength was incompatible with the safety of Europe, and to
condemn their own gallant monarch for the part he took in
their idol's fall. Alexander had paid for the education of
many young Russians, the sons of aides-de-camp or officers in
his service, at the most eminent schools and universities on the
Continent, and introduced foreign tutors to supply the educa-
tional establishments he founded in Russia. Where a Russian
appeared qualified to fill these posts he was always sure to
be selected, but there were not enough educated men in Russia
to take them ; the French and German universities contained
unpractical idealists, and the Russian students returned usually
connected with some secret society, which soon adopted
political reform as its aim. The foreign tutors also spread
the same ideas among their pupils in Russia. The secret

* The papers which reached St. Helena January 18th, 1816, asserted
that England had wished for the dismemberment of France, but that
Russia had opposed it.

278 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

societies Catherine II. had attempted to suppress sprang up in
all directions, endowed with new life^ and their members
could openly avow their connection with them without fear of
punishment. It was the fashion for every young man to
belong to an association of the kind. A Russian general who
accompanied the contingent back to Russia in 18 1 8, after its
three years' sojourn in France^ said that rather than let them
go home, the Emperor would do better to drown them in the
Baltic^ As frequently happens with secret associations, these
were joined by men for the sake of revenge, who had fancied
personal grievances against the Emperor — some like Yakou-
bovitz, cashiered for taking part in fatal duels, always contrary
to law in Russia, and others because they were poor. The
more violent dragged on the rest by threats of exposure, and a
movement which began with excellent motives ended in mere
treason.

An English missionary heard complaints in 1816 of the
prevalence of Freemasonry, and that it was spreading rapidly
in Poland ,* the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk, and
many laymen, strongly suspected it had a dark political object.
Alexander was warned on every side, and by numerous
anonymous letters, that his Government was being gradually
undermined, but he refused to take alarm. He remembered
the days of his own youth, his predilection for republics, and
his indignation at the abuses of Catherine's Government : he
knew his empire had not yet reached perfection, and he hoped
some day to find valuable assistants ia these young reformers,
whose suggestions he received in a gracious manner, even
when he thought them utterly visionary. The press poured
forth projects of legislation and plans of regeneration with an
activity rarely seen even in England, and perhaps never before
on the Continent. He thought this enthusiasm would exhaust
itself, for there was hardly an oflScer in the army who did
not carry about with him the plan of a constitution, or rather,
of an oligarchy like ancient Poland and Venice. Some few
desired an equal distribution of lands, as in Sparta, but hardly
any wished for the emancipation of the serfs, which Alexander
believed ought to precede everything. In vain his intimate
friends told him that these societies were becoming conspiracies,
and that even projects were beginning to be entertained against

Conspiracies and Bevolutiona, 279

his life. He had heard of conspiracies constantly throughout
his reign^ and they had vanished without his interference^ and
he now would take no measures to suppress them. Some
thought he was weary of existence^ others that he was ashamed*
to do it so long as he carried the bitter remembrance of having
once been a conspirator.

On the dissolution of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle^ Con-
stantine and the King of Prussia went to Paris, where the
last spent some time.^ The Grand Duke Michael was sent to
make a tour in Italy^ and Alexander returned home by Warsaw,
as a slight disturbance bad taken place in Poland. The
Empress came back to Russia almost immediately afterwards,
in deep dejection at the death of her brother, the Grand Duke
of Baden, who expired December 8th, during her visit to
Carlsruhe, at the age of thirty-three. As he left no son, her
uncle Louis succeeded him. On the last day of the old year
(January 12th) the Empress-Dowager returned to St. Peters-
burg, and the next day attended a public service with her son.
Four days afterwards Alexander was obliged to break to her
the news of the death of her daughter, Catherine of Wiirtem-
berg, whom she had lately visited, apparently in excellent
health. She had taken cold from sitting up on several
successive nights in severe weather with one of her children
who had the measles, and was attacked with violent erysipelas,
which affected her head, and terminated in apoplexy, carrying
her off in a few days. She was only thirty, having survived
her friend the Princess Charlotte scarcely fourteen months, and
her death caused a most extraordinarv sensation in Wiirtem-
berg, where she was much beloved, and had foimded schools
and hospitals from her private fortune.f Six hundred students
from Tubingen and Stuttgart followed her cofiBn to the grave.

The Empress had overtaxed her strength in watching by
her brother's death-bed, and the journey from Carlsruhe in the
middle of the winter completed the wreck of her health. She
was seized with nervous excitement on her return to St. Peters-
burg, and from this period to her death avoided all Court

• Wellington Correspondence. Supplementary voL for 1826.
t Two Englishmen, who visited Stutt>{art in 1818, have both described
her in enthusiastic terms. She spoke of her visit to England as the
happiest part of her life.

280 Con^iraciea and Revolutions,

festivities, and lived in cloister-like retirement in her various
palaces, only driving out when she thought she was likely to
be least observed. An Englishwoman, Mrs. Pitt, and a lady-
in-waiting, Mdlle. Waloueif, were almost her sole companions,
with the exception of the historian Karamzin, who had rooms
in the palace, and entertained her with his literary productions
when she was able to hear them. In this unhappy situation
Alexander was most attentive to her. When she was worse
than usual he would sit up with her a^ night, after having
been actively employed all day ; and when she refused to take
medicine, under the idea that she was being poisoned, he tasted it
himself before oflfering it to her, to convince her it had not been
tampered with. The Princess Mestchersky, who was intimate
at the palace, said he treated his wife like a spoiled child.

Allen and Grellet visited St. Petersburg in the winter of
1818-19, and the reigning Empress having expressed a desire
to see them, they were received in her private apartments.
" There is much mildness in her countenance,^' writes Allen.
'^ She received us very respectfully, and said that from what
the Emperor had told her she wished to see some of our
religious society. We had a good deal of conversation with
her upon serious subjects, which was highly satisfactory. We
feel much for her. After an interview of about three-quarters
of an hour we withdrew.'^ Alexander told them one reason
'' for keeping so large an army is, that the serfs who" become
soldiers after receiving their discharge are free men. He is
discharging great numbers, and taking others in their place ;
and one great object of establishing schools in the army is to
prepare these men for freedom.^' There was a library attached to
the manufactory of Alexandrovsky for the use of the workpeople,
and an Englishman writing in 1825 remarks on the extra-
ordinary desire for education and books among the Russian
soldiers ; but the project was much opposed by many of the
nobles, even '' some valuable and pious persons,^' lest if the
poor acquired the faculty of reading they might employ it for
a bad purpose. '' Independence, of character and determina-
tion to see and judge for himself mark the mind of the
Emperor.''

Alexander paid a short visit to Finland, where he was
always well received, in April, 1819. At Helsingfors he had

Conspiracies and Revolutio7is. 281

given 1,600,000 roubles towards replacing the old wooden city
burned down in the bombardment, with handsome streets of
stone houses, and had bestowed these new dwellings as gifts
on the former proprietors. In addition, he expended large
sums on public buildings, as he intended to make it the seat
of government. In May he went to Archangel, being the
first Sovereign, except Peter the Great, who had visited this
remote seaport. He travelled with his usual rapidity, and on
the journey crossed two lakes in ordinary ferry boats, embark-
ing on one occasion under a very stormy sky, instead of
waiting for a finer day. There are frequently dangerous
hurricanes on these inland Bussian seas, and during the
passage the gale increased till there was absolute danger, and
the loyal steersman whose boat conveyed the Emperor was
completely unnerved when he thought of his responsibility.
Alexander reassured him, and at last quietly directed another
sailor to take the helm. After many hours' delay they were
brought safely to the shore, though all, including the Emperor,
were soaked to the skin and nearly famished with hunger.
He minutely inspected the hospitals and prisons at Archangel,
and visited the ancient monastery of Kholmogri. At the end
of June he joined the camp at Krasnoe-Celo (a short distance
from Gateschina), where he had instituted the summer
manoeuvres still annually held by the Russian troops, and
where the wide plain is dotted With canvas tents, the tem-
porary abode of soldiers, officers. Grand Dukes, and Emperor.

Constantine camo to St. Petersburg in the spring, and was

driving one day with his brother when the Emperor alluded

to his intention of abdicating, which he had revolved in his

mind more or less since he was seventeen. ''For a long

time,'' he said, '' you know I have wanted rest, and I only

aspire to find it. After me the crown belongs to you. I

warn you of my intention, that you may think of it and take

your measures for the time when I shall effect my design.'^

Constantine assured the Emperor he should not survive him,

and would never consent to reign in his place. " Think

seriously of it," said Alexander. '' I must know to whose

hands I shall transfer the burden, and if after reflecting on it

you do not absolutely wish for the thronCj write to me a letter

that I can show to the Empress Mary, that I may confer

282 Conspiracies and Bevolutions.

with her, and provide for my successor/' Constantiue re-
newed his protestations. ^^ How shall I write this letter T' he
said ; '^ you know how badly I write Russian/' " Write it in
French/' Alexander replied. " I will translate it into Russian^
and you can copy it/'* and this was what actually took
place.

The Empress-mother generally took up her abode near
Krasnoe-Celo with the Princesses during the manoeuvres ; but
in 1819 the Grand Duchess Nicholas often came to her
husband's tent, where during several weeks he resided in the
midst of his brigade. The troops were encamped, not en masse,
as at present, but by turns, and the Emperor reviewed Ni-
cholas's division of the Guards the day before it was replaced
by another corps. He was more than usually kind to his
brother, and praised his zeal and the order of his brigade, which
was only intrusted to him the previous autumn. In the
evening he dined alone with Nicholas and his wife ; and after
conversing in an agreeable manner on indifferent subjects,
suddenly began rather drily on the succession to the throne.
He said he saw with the greatest pleasure the conjugal and
parental happiness of the young couple, for the education
given both to himself and his brother Constantiue was far
from being directed in such a manner as to enable them to
appreciate this kind of happiness, and moreover they had no
children. A monarch sincerely desirous of conscientiously
executing the constant and severe labours inseparable from the
fulfilment of his duties, must feel the indispensable necessity
— a necessity even more indispensable in our present century
than it has ever been before, of possessing, in addition to other
qualities, a large endowment of health and physical strength.
These were gradually failing in himself, and he foresaw the cer-
tainty at no distant time of being unable to fulfil his duties in
such a way as to satisfy his own conscience. He was resolved
therefore to abdicate the throne on the first warning given by
a perceptible diminution of his bodily or mental powers that
the proper moment had arrived. " I have on more than one
occasion," he said, '* discussed the subject with Constantiue ;

but he being of nearly the same age as myself, and possessing

*

• Eynard. Hi a authorities were Capo d'Istria and Alexander Tour-
genef.

9>

Conspiracies and Bevolutions. 283

an aversion to the idea of reigning^ has decidedly refused to
succeed me. We are both the more confirmed in our re-
spective determinations by seeing in you a proof of the par-
ticular blessing of Providence who has given you a son.
You are therefore informed that you are destined at a future
period to be invested with the Imperial dignity .^^*

Instead of being pleased^ Nicholas and his wife were both
so much distressed at it, even to tears, that the Emperor, " with
that angelic kindness and delicacy which distinguished him,
wrote his brother, ^' tried to encourage and tranquillize them.
'• The moment for the change which so alarms you,'' he said,
'* is not yet arrived ; before it comes ten years perhaps will
have passed over our heads, and my object in warning you is
merely that you may 'accustom yourselves to the inevitable
fate awaiting you/' Nicholas vainly represented that he had
never prepared himself for the Imperial dignity, and had not
sufficient ability or strength of character ; that he had no
other wish or ambition than to serve the Emperor faithfully
and with his whole powers in any sphere of duty which
Alexander might point out to him. The Emperor said he
was aware of it, and truly appreciated his loyalty ; that at the
period of his own accession he was equally unprepared ; and
besides, the Government was then in a most confused state
owing to the absence of anything like fundamental principles
of administration ; for though during the last years of the
Empress Catherine's life there was certainly a great want of
order and system, nevertheless the mechanism of Government
continued to go on, as it were, by its own vis inertue. From
the accession of their father, however, from the adoption of
the principle that the system hitherto followed was to be
completely abandoned, even the small remains of order were
annihilated without being replaced by any new system ; and
therefore his (Alexander's) position had been the more em-
barrassing, while now, after the reforms introduced in the
course of his reign, Nicholas would find everything following a
regular course and possessing a proper organization, so that
bis only task would be to maintain it.

* Baron KorfiTs narrative of the accession of Nicholas I. He gives
this conversation, and the Grand Dnke^s feelings, <fcc., verbatim from
Nicholases own Memoir.

2S4 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

The conversation ended and the Emperor retired^ but his
auditors felt as if their prospect of a prolonged domestic peace
was completely destroyed. Nicholas^ as his own memoir asserts^
" looked upon the dignity of Emperor with a feeling of awful
veneration, particularly having before his eyes, in his brother,
the living example of a Sovereign whose whole existence was
an incessant sacrifice to duty, and who nevertheless had so
seldom succeeded in securing even gratitude, at least from his
contemporaries ; and now all of a sudden, instead of the sphere
of existence traced out for him beforehand by the natural
order of succession, there opened before him a destiny so un-
expected, that of having to bear an almost insupportable
burden of tremendous responsibility to Ood and to his own
conscience — ^the burden of ruling the most gigantic empire in
the world/'

Alexander afterwards mentioned this conversation to Prince
William of Prussia, and frequently alluded to it again to
Nicholas and his wife ; but they always tried to avoid talking of
it, having apparently a sincere wish to remain subjects rather
than sovereigns; and when Prince William congratulated
them, Nicholas assured him he never meant to accept the
dignity, and hoped he would not refer to it any more. There
had never been much cordiality between Nicholas and Con-
stantine, the last having always shown a decided preference
for Michael. Alexander was only forty-one, and Constantine
just forty. They were both capable of enduring long journeys
and fatigues far beyond the power of most ordinary men;
many years of life probably lay before them in which they
might change their minds, and perhaps Nicholas foresaw the
trouble he had with Constantine, who, though submissive and
respectful to an elder brother whom he admired and loved,
was not equally so to one seventeen years younger than him-
self. Alexander's intention was not published, and no official
act was drawn up for some little time, while Constantine
jealously retained the title of Czarovitz, and was anxious to be
regarded by the world as heir to the throne. Some think he
only consented to renounce the succession by Alexander's
advice and strong representation of the dangers^ besetting the

* He told the Queen of Saxony his neck was not strong enough to
reign.

Consptractea and Bevolutions. 285

throne, and the probability that sooner or later he would meet
with a violent end. He was also anxious to form a marriage
with a young Polish lady of neither royal nor noble birth. He
made a last attempt in 1818 to procure a reconciliation with
his wife ; and his mother, desirous of preventing it and securing
the succession to Nicholas, advised him to obtain a divorce.
Marriage in the Orthodox Church can only be dissolved by
the unlimited power of the autocrat ; and after consulting the
Holy Synod, Alexander published an act of divorce between
his brother and the Princess of Saxe-Coburg,* who retained
her Russian name and title as well as a handsome income.
The same day, March 20th, 1820, he issued a manifesto de-
claring that a member of the Imperial family contracting a
marriage with a person not of royal birth, could not transmit
his right of inheritance to their children ; and its object was
explained on the following May 12th, by Constantine^s marriage
with Jeanne Grudzinska, the daughter of *' a poor country
gentleman,^' as he caused to be inserted in the marriage con-
tract; and the Czar immediately created her Princess of
Lowitz, and elevated her family to the rank of Counts of
Poland. He also sent her some magnificent wedding presents,
for she had been a maid of honour at the Court of Warsaw,
and her character irreproachable. " I shall try,^' she said, '^ to
render Monseigneur so happy that the Poles will benefit
by it.''

In the spring of 1819 Alexander acted as godfather by
proxy to the newly-born daughter of the Duke of Kent; the
Prince Regent standing in person as the other. The Duke
insisted on the Emperor's name coming first, which prevented
her from being also called Georgiana, as the Prince Regent
said his own name ought to come second to none. She was
therefore baptized " Alexandrina Victoria."t

The young poet, Alexander Pushkin, at this time filled a
post in the ministry of foreign affairs. He had published a
legendary romance, " Rustan and Ludmilla," when he made an
essay in politics and brought out a poem called '' Freedom,"

* She died in 1861.
t The Dnke of York acted for the Emperor. The others were the
Queen-Dowager of WUrtemberg and the Duchess-Dowager of Saxe-
Oobarg.

286 Consp iraciea and Revolutions.

which soon disappeared from circulation. The objectionable
part ivas the conclusion^ containing a violent denunciation of
the Emperor Paul. " Crowned wretch, from my soul I abhor
thee and thy whole race. The brightest day of my life would
have been the morning which should have seen thy ruin
and that of thy sons. Terror of the universe, shame of Nature,
living anathema of our earth — adieu. "When the moon
has sunk down below the dark river, when all is asleep there
is a point in the shade on which the poet casts a glance ; it
is on that black palace, where no fire is lighted, a threatening
sepulchre buried in gloom, which appears to us sad as it floats
in the mist, but sadder yet in memory's clouds."

The poem goes on to describe the "avenging band, a
silent cortege of mysterious men, to whom the portal is
opened by the unfaithful soldier, whose loud 'who goes
there?' ought to have been heard. He lowers the bridge of
the rugged citadel, delivering the royal owner who had con-
fided in him. A passage is cleared by a hand bought by
treachery, and in the sombre night, the lost soul flying, he
cries, he falls, he dies, the crowned bandit.'* It ends with a
caution to future Czars to take warning, " if they wished to
save their fragile crowns." Not satisfied with merely its pub-
lication, Pushkin took an opportunity to waylay Alexander
and offer it to him in the form. of a petition.

There was not a Sovereign to whom such an insult could
have been offered with impunity, and far from Alexander
being reproached with Pushkin's exile, it was rather a proof of
his extreme moderation, that he inflicted no more severe
punishment than to send him to his father at Moscow. A short
time afterwards he received a civil appointment at Odessa,
where he became a frequent visitor at the Countess Voronzov's,
and there seeing a picture of the Emperor, he 'made an
impromptu verse, more complimentary to his Sovereign's
personal appearance than to his brains. Perhaps the Countess
thought he would get into further trouble, for by her advice
he made a tour in the Caucasus, which inspired him with
more than one beautiful ode. He was allowed to publish
them, but was soon deeply involved in the conspiracy to over-
throw the Government; and having resigned his post, it
was owing to the accident of his being absent in Pskov at his

\

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 287

father's country estate, at the time of the outbreak in
St. Petersburg when Alexander died, that he was prevented
from probably compromising himself for life. His genius
also stood him in good stead ; Alexander marked him out as
" the future Racine of Russia '^ when his youthful follies
should have evaporated ; and Nicholas, instead of including
him in the number of the proscribed, appointed him the his-
toriographer of the empire.

In the spring of 1819 Alexander had received some
complaints of the perversion of justice in Siberia, and ap-
pointed his old secretary, Speranski, to the supreme govern-
ment, with directions to inquire particularly into the conduct of
the local governors, and all cases of peculation and injustice.
He received unlimited powers, and travelled from one end to
the other of Russian Asia, penetrating into every prison or
other receptacle for criminals. In one year he dismissed all
the governors in the country except the commandant at
Okhotzk, and several of these having undergone a trial in
St. Petersburg, were condemned to serve in the ranks, or
returned as convicts to their old quarters. Alexander heard
Speranski^s health was breaking down, and sent a physician.
Dr. Burtzof, to him ; but the governor believing that medical
assistance was more required among the prisoners, dispensed
with his services to enable him to devote his attention entirely
to them. Cochrane met Speranski in Siberia in 1820, and
writes, ^'I have never seen more true greatness of soul or
goodness of heart.'^ But he resigned his post at the end of
seventeen mouths, when Eastern and Western Siberia were
placed as before under separate governors-general, and the
vice-governors of the principal towns made responsible only to
the Imperial senate. In March, 1821, he returned to St.
Petersburg after an absence of nine years. The Emperor
received him very kindly, and desired him to resume his
labours upon the " Digest of the Russian Law,'' and his seat
in the Council of State.

In August, 1819, Alexander went to Riga, where a deputa-
tion presented him with the scheme for emancipation. "1
am delighted,'' he said, " to see that the nobility of Livonia have
accomplished my expectations. You have set an example
that ought to be imitated ; you have acted in the spirit of our

288 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

age^ and have felt that liberal principles alone can form the
basis of the people^s happiness/' From Riga he came to
Mittau, to attend the solemnity accompanying the final
enfranchisement of the serfs of Courland^ and on September
24th, heard the Te Deum sung in the cathedral to commemo-
rate the event.

When a constitution was bestowed upon the Duchy of
Warsaw, Lithuania and the Russo- Polish provinces had also
received their old form of government, and the Lithuanian
army was now placed under the command of the Polish
General-in-Chief. A report was spread, and eagerly circulated
by the secret societies, that Alexander meant to alienate these
provinces, and even Kiov, which the Poles claimed, because in
the days of Russia's humiliation under the Tartars, they
had conquered and retained it for a short period, and that he
intended to erect them into a separate kingdom. This made
a great sensation in Russia, where the conspirators resolved to
embrue their hands in the blood of their Sovereign rather
than see him partition Russia. The indiscretions of the
Polish press, and disturbances in the University which Alex-
ander established at Warsaw, in place of their ancient one at
Cracow, did not serve to bind the two nations ; and on the
one side Czartoriski continued to complain to Alexander
of the proceedings of the local government at Warsaw.
" W^hen your orders are severe, their execution is prompt and
vigorous; but when they are favourable to the constitution,
there are always pretexts for delaying their development -"
while on the other, Novossilzof wrote that Czartoriski's
curatorship of the schools in the Russo- Polish provinces was
entirely calculated to detach the students from Russia. '' All
that comes from your Majesty,'' writes Czartoriski, ''only
breathes goodness, greatness of soul, liberality of principles ;
the words and actions of his Imperial Highness are in quite an
opposite sense. The lieutenant (General Zaiconzek), on his
side, incessantly repeats that the constitution is a code of
anarchy, that it must be changed. Novossilzof alone does
not contribute to unhinge and lower the public spirit." He
also asserts that General Zaiconzek has on essential points
. of legislation and administration, principles or prejudices
quite contrary to those of the rest of the persons placed

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 289

in the government; that having passed his life ont of the
country and in the military service^ he understands very little
of legislative matters. He is consequently often alone in his
opinion^ and attributes this result to a party spirit and a pre-
tended enmity against him which does not exist. Unfor-
tunately, the Grand Duke shares his opinion/'

It was hardly likely that one of Napoleon's old generals^
accustomed to military discipline and to his former master's
mode of suppressing the Tribune and other popular assem-
blies, should possess the patience and long-suffering required
to deal with a constitutional Poland. In the days of the
Duchy of Warsaw under French protection^ a row of cannon
would quickly have ended such disputes in the Diet if they had
ventured to appear. But his appointment was a concession to
the Polish predilection for military renown, particularly when
connected with France, and a proof of the extraordinary
generosity of Alexander in bestowing it on one of his most
constant enemies, and for that very reason, next to Kosciusko
and the dead Poniatowski, the most popular man in Poland.
He now merelv did his best to remain faithful to his new
Sovereign, and saw that the aim of the Diet was to cut their tie \
with Russia as soon as they had acquired the annexation of )
the Russo- Polish provinces. The Legislative Council proved)
the same stormy assembly as in ancient Poland. The right |
of appeal to the Sovereign was exercised on the most frivolous
occasions, and to procure a perversion of justice rather* than
its execution, and against the ministerial decrees. Alexander
sent a message to the effect that he was resolved to preserve
the charter, but that on their side the Poles were bound
to observe their duties rigorously, instead of delivering them*
selves over to chimerical dreams.

The Emperor's visit to Warsaw in September passed off
quietly; but Czartoriski, who had lately married, went to
Baden just before he arrived, on the score of his wife's healthy
and absented himself on the same occasion the following
year. The Emperor called as usual on the old Countess
of Tiesenhausen, the Princess Badzivil, and other Polish
ladies of high rank, and asked the Princess Radzivil (a member
of the Prussian royal family), when she was coming to
St. Petersburg to see her niece, the Grand Duchess Nicholas.

VOL. III. u

I

290 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

He cut short all compliments rather impatiently — perhaps
weary of profuse expressions of admiration not borne out — ^but
otherwise seemed as popular as before; and Karamzin was
stirred up to write a long letter to him^ representing that
if the report was true of his intended restoration of entire
Poland^ he would be acting most unjustly by his own people.
He began by endeavouring to show that policy^ not Christian
forgiveness^ ought to rule a State. It was only the strength of
Kussia which procured the obedience of Poland^ but the
Russians had acquired for the Emperor the glory of being the
liberator of Europe. ^' You think of re-establishing the
ancient kingdom of Poland. Is that compatible with the
safety of Russia ? Is it in conformity with your sacred obliga-
tions^ to the love of your empire^ to justice itself? Can you
conscientiously deprive us of White Russia^ Podolia^ Lithuania,
and Volhynia, the property of Russia long before your reign ?
Did not you swear to maintain the integrity of your empire?
All these countries were Russian when the Metropolitan
Plato handed you the crown of Monomachus, Peter^ and
Catherine ; that Catherine whom yourself called the Great I
If it was illegal for her to partition Poland, it would be still
more illegal for you to repair Catherine's injustice by a parti-
tion of Russia itself. We conquered Poland by our sword —
that is our right; it is to that right that all States owe their
existence, for all were formed by conquest. Why not also re-
estab!ish the kingdom of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Republic
of Novgorod, the Grand Duchy of Riazan, &c. ? Moreover,
White Russia, Yolhynia, Podolia, and Galicia made at one
time part of the constituent possessions of Russia. If you cede
them they will demand of you the cession of Kiof,
Tchernigof, Smolensko, for these towns for a long time
belonged to hostile Lithuania. Would you, who love liberty,
treat Russia like an inanimate thing ? . . . . Sire, Russia is
silent before you ; but if ever (from which may God preserve
us !) ancient Poland is re-established and produces an historian
worthy of the name, that historian would condemn your mag-
nanimity as fatal to your true country .... if in order to
obtain the applause of the Poles you reduce the latter
to despair. ... I hear what the Russians say, ' We shoidd
lose not only our beautiful lands, but also our love for th6 Czar ;

ConBpirades and Revolutions, 291

we should feel our patriotism grow cooler, seeing our country
the toy of arbitrary caprice. ... In one word, either the re-
establishment of Poland will be the ruin of Russia, or our
children will water the Polish soil with our blood, and will
take Praga once more by assault.' "

He goes on to say that the only way of keeping Poland
harmless is to keep her weak and powerless. The stronger
she is made, the more she will desire to become independent,
and her first step would be to separate from Russia. '^ In
case of war those countries might all be against us.'' He
enlarges on Russia's greatness : '* You have already acquired the
title of Great \ desire that of our Father. Let it live, let it
flourish, the kingdom of Poland as it is now ; but let Russia
also live and prosper, as she is now, as she was left to you by
Catherine. Catherine loved you tenderly, and loved our
native country ; her shade hovers here, I am silent.

•* Czarco-Sdo, October 17th, 1819."

When Earamzin sent this letter he told his wife to prepare
to leave the rooms they occupied in the palace. The Russians
were further irritated by the flight of a number of serfs into
Poland, and Alexander, after consulting the ministers on their
extradition, decided that Poland ought to enjoy the privileges
of a separate kingdom in this respect, and they were allowed
to remain. The same year he passed a law permitting serfs
in every part of the empire to establish themselves as manufac-
turers or traders ; a privilege only enjoyed hitherto by free
men, and all taking advantage of this law were relieved from
the income-tax for four years. From Archangel he sent out
the order for the first levy of recruits since the war, and took •
measures to colonize the portion of the army centred in Bes-
sarabia, so as to complete a cordon from the Baltic to the
Black Sea. This year Russia contracted a loan in Holland,
to enable her to reduce her paper money, and as many assig-
nats to the amount of 38,000,000 roubles were publicly burned.
A law was passed directing that magazines of com should be
established in every district as a reserve against years of famine,
and a commission was appointed under the presidency of the
Emperor's uncle, the Prince of Wiirtemberg, charged with the
maintenance of all the roads, bridges, and highways. In

u2

292 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

1820 a macadamized road was begun between St. Petersburg
and Moscow^ a distance of 400 miles. It was completed early
in the reign of Nicholas.

In 1819 a large colony of Prussian Dissenters received
lands^ and were allowed to settle in Russia on account of public
opinion being strongly against them in their own country.
Allen and Grellet met with six different kinds of Dissenting
colonies during their tour in South Russia^ all living in har-
mony^ and all equally prosperous. At the end of this year
Alexander paid a short visit to Moscow.

In 1820 an expedition was despatched to explore the north-
east point of Asia^ where it was reported a colony of ship-
wrecked Russian sailors had been found. The Czar also
sent an exploring party into Central Asia^ and an envoy
to Bokhara^ with which Russia had held communication
long before Great Britain possessed a foot of land in India.
A mission was forwarded to China^ and five Kalmuck chiefs
who left Russia under Catherine II. now sent in the adhesion
of their tribes to her rule. This year a steamer was launched
on the Volgaj and plied regularly between Kazan and
Astrakhan.

The month of January^ 1820^ saw the close of the long reign
of George III., who had begun it a contemporary of the
Empress Elizabeth ; but it caused no change in the English
Cabinet, where the Conservatives under Lord Liverpool retained
their seats. The King's fourth son, the Duke of Kent, died
six days before his father^ leaving one infant child, the present
Queen.

The disputes long existing between Spain and her American
colonies ended in 1820, by Mexico declaring herself independent,
and the following year Brazil threw off her allegiance to
Portugal. The agitations distracting the mother-country
accelerated the division of the once formidable Spanish Empire,
for since the restoration of Ferdinand VII. there was a con-
tinued struggle between the Royalists and clergy with the
Liberals, who, like most continental Republicans, could not
separate religion from despotism, and in Ferdinand they had
to deal with the weakest and most superstitious of cruel
despots. A rebellion broke out January 1st, which soon in-
volved the peninsula in a civil war^ and the mountainous

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 293

nature of the country, and perhaps a want of energy in the
royal troops, enabled the revolutionists, as at the present day,
to protract it more than two years. The flame soon spread to
Naples, already abounding in secret societies, for the King, with
no reforming proclivities, had tied his hands by a secret article
in his treaty with Austria in 1815, which bound him not to in-
troduce into his Government any principles irreconcilable with
those adopted by Francis in the north of Italy. In the
course of the summer Sardinia and Naples were both in open
revolt.

A melancholy catastrophe gave further evidence of the un-
popularity of the Bourbons in France. The Due de Berri,
married for three years to a Princess of Naples, was stabbed at
the door of the theatre in Paris, under the impression that with
him the dynasty must become extinct (February 13th, 1820).
His elder brother was childless, and his own infant daughter
was precluded from the succession by the Salic law. But on
September 20th the Duchesse de Berri gave birth to a son (the
present Comte de Chambord), to the great satisfaction of the
friends of order and legitimacy, threatened by the revolutionary
pamphlets that for the last two years teemed from the press,
openly advocating the assassination of priuces, and exalting
the leaders of insurrection, Alexander wrote a warm con-
gratulatory letter to Louis on the birth of his heir; and another
to the Duchesse de Berri, commending the exertions she made
to obtain a pardon for two men who conspired against her
life and that of her new-born child. He deplored to his own
family the tragical death of the Duke, whose character he
said had greatly improved, and ofibred in the future a guarantee
of happiness to France, which seemed a permanent hearth of
revolution. " What do the French wish? They enjoy a beautiful
country, a happy climate, all the advantages of heaven and
earth, as much liberty as they can reasonably desire.'^ As
had always been the case for a century, the French commotions
found an echo in Poland. Her press advocated republics, and
cried up the chiefs of insurrection. Her true friends would
have counselled her to wait till the Russians had forgotten the
ferocity with which the Polish contingent massacred unarmed
men and women during the campaign of 1812. Eight years
only had since elapsed, and the remembrance bringing forcibly

294 Conspiracies and Bevoluticns.

to mind the horrors of a Polish insurrection^ Alexander's
Russian counsellors called loudly upon him to put some
restraint upon their language and forestall such an event.

Two destructive fires took place the same nighty in June,
1820, believed to be the work of political malcontents, as such
ignorant and mischievous modes of vengeance have always
been common in Russia. A wing of the palace of Czarco-Sclo,
including the Lyceum* founded by Alexander, and the Ismailov
barracks in St. Petersburg were burned to the ground. The
Emperor observed, that since two events of this kind were to
happen, he was glad they should weigh on the Crown rather
than on the richest of his subjects.

On March 25th, 1820, Alexander issued a ukaz abolishing
the Order of Jesuits in Russia, and obligiDg them to leave the
empire in two months' time. At Odessa they had publicly
burned some Bibles lately translated into Russian, and com-
mitted other acts of intolerance. The decree stated that
^^ The sacred duty of educating the youths of their confession
was intrusted to the Jesuits, to enlighten the intellect with
science and the heart with religion. While themselves enjoy-
ing ample tolerance, they have sown in weak minds the germs
of a rude intolerance. They have attempted to overthrow the
defence of the State, the attachment to the religion of their
fathers, and so ruining the happiness of families by exciting pain-
ful differences of opinion. All the efforts of the Jesuits aim

* The first is described by Cochrane, who saw the catastrophe : — " As
we proceeded, there suddenly rose to the south-east a tremendous blaze,
the cause of which it seemed difficult to conjecture : immense masses of
fire and sparks at intervals exploded and separated like a rocket. ... It
was the Emperor's favourite palace wrapped m an inextinguishable flame !
It was midnight ; parties of men surrounded the wasting pile. All was
order and regalarity ; not a voice was heard amid the thousands of people
employed. The Emperor was present, evidently impressed with extreme
regret, but continued to give nrequent directions with perfect coolness.
Czarco-Selo was the palace where the Emperor and his brother Constan-
tine were brought up, and passed their earliest years; here also the
Emperor was accustomed to retire when the cares of State permitted him
to lose amidst its beauties the anxiety of a throne and the toDs of so
great a government. He had greatly embellished it, and it was considered
one of the most beautiful retreats in Europe. His Majesty gave a strong
proof of steady collectedness. While the nre was rd^/gimg from apartment
to apartment, apparently mocking the resistance of man, he directed that
the doors should be walled up with bricks. This was instantly done ; and
by such an expedient alone could the amber, the most valuable chamber,
have been wrested from the general destruction."

ConspiracieB and Revolutions. 295

at their own aggrandizement and extended power. They have
already been warned ; but the reports of the civil authorities
state that they continue to draw into their communion pupils
of the orthodox faith^ placed in the college at Mohilef^ at
Saratov^ and in Siberia. The Minister of Public Worship has
constantly pointed out these transgressions to the Pere G^n^ral
of the Order since 181 5> but without effect. By every means
of seduction and conversion they continue to sow trouble in
the Protestant colonies^ and even to steal Jewish children
from their parents/' The landed property with which Paul
formerly endowed them, was appropriated for the benefit of
the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and Russia.

When Alexander was visiting the territory of the Don
Cossacks in 1818^ his carriage was violently overturned^ and
he was hurt in the leg. Wylie pressed him to take a week
or two's rest in a recumbent position ; but he was in the
habit of fixing the exact date of his return from a journey
irrevocably, and constantly on horseback or taking exercise on
foot, he never gave it an opportunity of healing properly.*
He became subject to periodical attacks of erysipelas in the
damaged limb, which obliged him to keep his sofa for weeks,
and to walk lame for months. His general health was always
affected, and he suffered firom severe headaches when his usual
long walks were checked ; and this was the case in the spring of
1820, during which he nevertheless accomplished a tour of inspec-
tion among the military colonies, and visited Moscow. The usual
military manoeuvres took place at Krasnoe-Celo in the summer,
when the alarming illness of the Grand Duchess Nicholas
gave great anxiety to her family. Leaving her children in
Russia, she was taken to Germany as soon as she could be
removed, and remained there for the following ten months.

At the end of August Alexander went to Warsaw, which
was much excited by the insurrections in Spain and Naples.
Czartoriski preferred to plead the cause of the Poles by letter

* M. Dupr^ de St. Maure writes : — " The fall was serious, but he would
have been quickly cured if, yielding to Dr. Wylie, he had taken rest.
Fati^e and the want of precautions increased the malad^r, and periodically
erysipelas has broken out in this suffering leg. At this moment (1821)
the Emperor has kept his bed for several weeks. The doctors have beep
very uneasy, and I have met with more than one anxious face in public ;
but his journey in the autumn will take place nevertheless."

296 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

rather than in person to the Emperor, and had withdrawn
from Warsaw for Genoa before he arrived ; bnt he wrote to
tell him it was '^ only the vigilant and paternal wisdom of
his Majesty which conid put an end to the confusion/' and
that the deficiency in the revenue might be arranged with
good management. He concluded by saying it was reputed
the coming Diet would be strongly agitated^ but he did not
believe it. However, this report turned out to be the truth.

On September Ist (o.s.) Alexander opened the Assembly as
usual, dressed in the Polish uniform and wearing the white
eagle. Warsaw was illuminated to receive him, and the
ministerial reports spoke favourably of its material prosperity.
A million had been added to the population since the war,
and they had enjoyed good harvests ; but a spirit of insubor-
dination was evident, produced, it was said, by Polish youths
returning from German universities. The Emperor declared
in his speech that he would persevere in his intention of main-
taining the charter, but the Poles held in their hands the fate
of their country, dependent on their devotion to the throne,
and their good disposition to second the efforts of the Govern-
ment. To these warnings the Diet answered by refusing the
projects of law proposed by the minister, particularly an
amendment of the criminal code. The violent language used
in the assembly exceeded anything ever heard in national
debates in the present century, and Alexander would have
been accused of great weakness if he had chosen to overlook
it. In addition, the Diet refused to supply the payment of
the taxes as agreed during the last five years, and caused u
deficiency in the treasury by way of a defiance to the Govern-
ment. Alexander raised the gauntlet. " Since Poland,^' he
said, " cannot suffice to herself, and relieve her own neces-
sities, we shall organize her differently. We have wished to
extend the privileges already bestowed on you, but before the
systematic hostility of the Diet, we are forced, in the interests
of the general security, to modify the given charter.'* The
restrictions were a censorship of the press, which had most
decidedly abused its privileges ; and as every species of litera-
ture except hostile political essays was still allowed free
circulation, it was only those who wished to employ it for a
bad purpose who had reason to complain. Also the public.

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 297

who had added considerably to the confusion, were not in
future admitted to the debates in the Diet^ and the Diet itself
was not called to sit again till 1825. When the Emperor
closed the session^ October 1st (o.s.), he severely and rather
sarcastically reproached the members with delaying the deve-
lopment and strengthening of the national institutions.
" Appeal to your consciences/^ he added^ '' and see whether in
the course of your discussions you have rendered Poland all
the service she expected from your wisdom ; or if, on the con-
trary, drawn on by the too common seductions of the present
day, and sacrificing a hope that more confidence and foresight
would have realized, you have not checked in its progress the
dawn of the restoration of your country. This grave respon-
sibility will weigh on you. It is the necessary security of the
independence of your votes. They are free, but a pure inten-
tion ought always to determine them. Mine are known to
you. You have received good for evil, and Poland is restored
to the position of a State. I shall persevere in my designs in
this respect, whatever may be the opinion formed on the
manner in which you have just exercised your prerogatives."
"They compromise me with my own people,^* he said to one
of the Polish nobles in Warsaw. After the closing of the Diet
he stayed a few days longer with Constantine at the palace of
Belvedere. He observed that his sister-in-law seemed rather
saddened by her elevation, and was not long in discovering
the cause. A woman who at one time had gained much power
over Constantine remained in the neighbourhood. The Grand
Duke said no one would turn even an old horse adrift ; but
Alexander paid her to retire into Germany. Constantine
declared he was now as happy as was compatible with the lot
of humanity. She consoled him, and sang to him in his hours
of melancholy, and exercised a softening influence which
soon showed itself towards his attendants. They went yearly
to the German baths, spent their evenings together, and were
often guests at the Court of Dresden. His marriage with a
native of the country added to his popularity, and in 1825 he
was more liked than Nicholas^ who was supposed to have
imbibed German sympathies.

Alexander gave a site for a statue of Poniatowski in War-
saw, and subscribed towards its erection^ and on leaving Warsaw

298 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

' — — ^ — — ■ ■ ■ -1

he visited the tomb of Kosciusko^ who died in Switzerland in
1817, when his remains were transferred to Cracow at the
Emperor's expense. He proceeded to Troppau in Silesia,
where a Congress of Sovereigns had met at the Emperor of
Austria's request, to consult on the affairs of Naples and Spain.
Austria was greatly alarmed for her own possessions in Italy,
and hoped to procure Alexander's consent to an active inter-
vention by pointing out danger to his own throne, for Met-
ternich ascertained there was a connection between a secret
society in Milan and one in Russia. Before the Congress had
sat many days the news arrived that the soldiers of the
/ Simonovsky Guards had mutinied in St. Petersburg.

This event, almost unprecedented in the Russian military
annals, is variously ascribed to the cruelty of a Courland
oflScer, Colonel Schwartz, who had tried to reintroduce flog-
ging in the regiment, and to the members of the secret
societies, which comprised nearly all its officers, the sons of
men for whom Alexander had a particular regard. It was his
own regiment before he came to the throne, and on duty at
the old St. Michael's Palace the night of Paul's murder.
Having once been made the instrument of a revolution, the
tradition still clung to it, and smoothed the difficulty in
making it serve a political purpose now. Three nephews of
Alexander's old tutor Muravief were among these officers.
They were educated in France at Alexander's expense, and re-
ceived much kindness from him, but were enthusiastic re-
publicans ; and as their father spent nearly all his life at foreign
Courts, they were almost ignorant of their native land, and
had belonged to secret societies abroad since 1816. Dr.
Pinkerton declares that members of this conspiracy tried to
raise opposition to the Bible Society, to call off the attention
of the Government from their own traitorous designs, and they
certainly made use of the Bibles served out to every soldier in
the army who could read, to point out that the men would
only be foDowing the example set in Holy Scripture if they
rose like the Israelites under Deborah and Barak against
Schwartz, whom they compared to the foreign Sisera. It was
suppressed by Miloradovitz, the Governor of St. Petersburg —
a hero revered by the regiment. He persuaded them to lay
down their arms, and enter the fortress quietly, where they

\

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 299

were separately drafted off into distant battalions^ and the
older among tliem sent home. He sent an officer (Chadief)
to carry liis report to Alexander^ and this man^ himself a
member of a secret association^ loitered as long as he could on
the road^ so that a courier sent by the Austrian ambassador
to Mettemich brought the news first to Troppau. The Con-
gress was sittings and Mettemich trying to convince the
Sovereigns of the revolutionary state of all Europe, when
Alexander replied, ^* I can answer for Russia's safety/'
*^ Sire \" exclaimed the Austrian, '* you do not know what is
going on in your own country ;'' and he gave him an account
of the revolt.

When Chadief at last arrived, Alexander reproached him
very hotly for his delay, but the day afterwards repented of
having spoken so strongly, when after all it might have been
accidental, and offered him his promotion. But Chadief re-
fused it, and only asked one favour — his dismissal — which
Alexander gave him with regret. The officer remained abroad,
serving his disaffected countrymen, but Alexander immediately
returned to St. Petersburg, leaving Nesselrode to finish up
the affairs of the Congress, which was soon adjourned ; and
this minister, always Austrian in sentiment, was now entirely
swayed by Mettemich, and agreed with him in declining to
receive an emissary from the Neapolitan revolutionists.

As soon as the £mperor arrived at St. Petersburg, he
ordered the insurgents to be treated with mercy, but
cashiered the rebellious officers. He was engrossed with mili-
tary matters till he returned to the Congress, removed to
Laybach January 4thr, and on December 2nd mournfully re-
ferred to its being the anniversary of '^ that unfortunate day/'
meaning Austerlitz, as he was transacting business with
Miloradovitz. It was the coldest winter known for many
years, and some starving wolves entered the streets of St.
Petersburg. But he made the two long journeys in an open
sledge, and arrived at Laybach on the 7th. At one of the
earliest meetings he said : ** The spirit of the age required
liberal institutions, and a gradual admission of the people to
power ; but that they should proceed from the free will and
well-weighed conviction of those whom God has rendered re-
sponsible for power, and not be forced upon them by their

300 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

subjects ; and therefore the Allies could hold no intercourse
with the insurgents in Spain and Italy/' He now gave the
consent he withheld at Troppau, to an Austrian army being
put at the disposal of the King of Naples^ and maintained at
the expense of the country. The meetings were held with
closed doors^ not even a secretary being present except Met-
ternich. England and Prance gave no aid to the insurrection,
but lent no opposition to its being suppressed j and Austria
also took upon herself to put down the rebellion in Piedmont.
At Laybach Las Cases wrote again to Alexander^
earnestly appealing to him to obtain Napoleon's release.
'' What would be your tardy, powerless regrets, which could
not appease your heart, or restore to your memory a mag-
nanimous generous act, the most enduring, the best kind of
glory, the most dear to posterity, the best known perhaps
with which you would be able to embellish your glorious life :
I mean to say the forgetfulness of injuries, the disdain of
vengeance, the remembrance of old friendship, and lastly, the
respect due to Napoleon's majesty, to the anointed of the
Lord." Napoleon had always persistently refused to see the
Russian commissioner at St. Helena, and though never weary
of complaining of the ^' heartlessness " of the allied Sovereigns,
and that he never had a personal quarrel with Alexander,
merely a political one, he only appealed to him indirectly
through Las Cases ; and having once set the counsels of his
royal colleagues at defiance, and permitted Napoleon to live
untrammelled in Elba, and seen the result, which had fallen
the most heavily on France herself, Alexander would not again
undertake to restore him to Europe at a moment when the
French were prepared to receive with open arms any claimant
to the throne in the place of Louis. He felt this extreme
desire to return to public life might possibly be actuated by
ambition, and who could say it was not, or that the ex-
Emperor's first efforts to obtain an alliance would not establish
a crusade against Russia ? All his conversations at St. Helena
tended in this direction. " She is the head of the Hydra,
but where find the Hercules ? We only dared to pretend to
it, and we have attempted it awkwardly it must be confessed."
Only one recorded observation shows he was beginning
to see that a Sovereign is not placed over a great Power

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 301

merely to indulge a love of conquest. If he were Emperor of
Russia^ he should march through Germany to Calais, and
make himself arbiter of Europe ; but he added, '' And after all,
to what good V^ A question Alexander had answered more
than once in the same way. He had now all the power and
dominion Napoleon had made it the work of his life to obtain,
and Napoleon at St. Helena enjoyed the rest and retirement
from the world, the means of philosophical and scientific study
and reflection to which Alexander had looked forward during
the last twenty-two years as the desirable haven he might
some day attain. Neither of the two rivals secured the desire of
his heart, but it wba decidedly to the benefit of the world at
large that their position was not reversed.

The Czar did however, in a private manner, through his
ambassador, express his opinion that the British Government
might 'hold out some hope to Napoleon of his ultimate release^
and prevent him from falling into a state of despondency, and
to the last fortnight of his life Napoleon's sanguine tempera-
ment buoyed him up with the expectation of being some day
permitted to return. His death. May 5th, 1821, made little
sensation, as all minds were engrossed with the Greek revolu-
tion, which followed closely on that of Naples and Spain, and
its possible consequences to the so-called balance of power in
Europe. Much as the Continent had b^en stirred by his
supremacy, it in reality left no permanent eflect but the ruin
it brought on France, which has never since occupied the posi-
tion she filled in the time of Louis XIY., and to the eve of
the great revolution. Napoleon did not create his* era, but was
the creature of it, guided by no principle, but moulded by
events, while Alexander inaugurated a new era for Russia, and
introduced the reforms of the revolution to order and
legitimacy in Europe, while he checked a new revolutionary
spirit by peaceful methods without being compelled to restrain
it through compromising the independence of other States.

Many of the generals and statesmen engaged in the long
war had preceded Napoleon to the grave ; among others the
Prince de Conde, Prince Alexander Kurakin, Platof, Barclay
de Tolly (created a Prince in 1815), and Vinzingerode, who all
died in 1818; Blucher a year later^ and Schwartzenberg,
always a bon vivant^ found peace more trying than a cam-

302 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

paign, and died of apoplexy in 1820. In 1818 Benningsen,
who was made a Count after Leipsie^ also retired from the
Russian service.

Alexander was detained by illness more than the pressure
of public affairs at Laybach^ for he was again attacked with
erysipelas^ and at the end of March received the news of an
insurrection in Moldavia and WaJlachia^ headed by Ipsilanti^
the grandson of that Hospodar beheaded at Constantinople
in 1807, and himself an officer in the Russian service.
He issued a proclamation indirectly holding out to the people
the hope of Russian assistance, and at the same time wrote to
Alexander to offer to drive out the Turks, and to deliver the
Danubian Principalities into his hands. Russia had just
closed a long diplomatic dispute with Turkey, and yielded a
small strip of territory in exchange for the protectorate of
the Christians in the Mahometan dominions j a treaty re-
newed by Nicholas, and the resistance offered to it by the
Turks in 1853, brought on the Crimean war. The Czar at
once disowned Ipsilanti's proceedings, and with Austria de-
clared a strict neutrality. He struck his name from the
Russian army list, and wrote to tell him that to assist re-
volted subjects or accept territory from them was entirely in-
consistent with his principles. Low and debilitated from his
illness, Mettemich tried to persuade him that (whether true
or false) this rising, and an insurrection which broke out
almost simultaneously among the Greeks in the Morea, was
but a link in the long chain of rebellion* which, extending
through France, had reached Spain, Piedmont, and Naples,
and finding sympathy in the German universities and Poland,
had even fastened upon his favourite regiment which was often
on guard in the interior of the Imperial palace, and was
spreading its ramifications through Russia. But it was so
unnatural that a Russian Emperor and the protector of his
co-religionists should not sympathize with the Greeks in their
gallant struggle for independence, that the Turkish Govern-

* Although the Duke of Wellington was never gaided in his opinions
by Metternich, whose ** pitiful hypocrisy " he contrasts with the " honest
straightforwardnesB " of the Emperor Nicholas, he still maintained this
opinion, and believed that the insurrection in Greece was mainly promoted
by the democrats, in the hope of embroiling Russia with Austria, and
dissolving the Holy Alliance. — See Wellington Correspondence for 1826.

\

Conspiracies and BevoluHons. 803

ment accused him of being in secret an accessory to the revolt^
though as since proved nothing was noiore untrue. They
accordingly violated the treaty as to Moldavia and Wallachia^
seized two Greek vessels sailing under the Russian flag, and
made a violent attack upon the residence of the Russian am-
bassador^ Baron Strogonof^ who had boldly remonstrated
against their cruelty to the Christians and their insults to the
Greek churches^ and was now compelled to turn his palace
into a fortress. His protests were disregarded : the angry
Porte called on Russia to deny a refuge to the Greek popu-
lation who were pouring into her territories, and wa^ an-
swered^ that as long as the Turkish Empire lasted the
Czar would grant an asylum to any Greek who demanded it ;
and an embargo was immediately laid upon Russian vessels
passing through the Bosphorus.

While England, Austria, and Prance all united to prevent
a war between Turkey and Russia, the struggle was carried on
in Greece with the most savage cruelty on the side of the
Turks. England, in her jealousy for her Mahometan pro-
tege, had delivered up the town of Parga on the Albanian
coast to the ferocious Ali Pacha in 1819, and the whole
Christian population deserted it with the bones of their
ancestors — ^a touching picture which caused great sympathy
throughout Europe. The one idea of Great Britain was to
keep Russia out of the Mediterranean, and no one was more
aware of this than Alexander. She tried to smooth over every
point of diflference between Russia and Turkey. The Porte
must be treated like a spoiled child for whom allowances
should be made, and a casus belli with other nations ought
not to be made a subject of difierence with her. Young en-
thusiasts from all parts of Europe hastened to the scene of
action to assist the Greeks, but were disavowed by their own
Governments, who persisted in seeing nothing in the insur-
rection but secret societies and Muscovite intrigues. In
Russia large sums were collected for the Greeks, and Alex-
ander subscribed liberally to the fund for the exiles who
arrived ragged and starving on his shores. The Greek Pa-
triarch was hung at the door of his own church and thrown
into the Bosphorus, whence his body> rescued by some Chris-
tian fishermen^ was brought to Odessa and interred with all

304 Conspiracies and Revolutions.

the honours befitting his rank. In the middle of July an
ultimatum arrived from Russia to the Porte. Strogonof was
to require an unconditional acceptance of its terms within
eight days^ or else leave Constantinople with his whole suite.
The terms included no cession of territory or other personal
advantage to Russia. The Emperor simply exercised the right
to protect the Christians which his grandmother had bought
by the restoration of Bessarabia and the Greek islands at the
peace of Jassy in 1792, and which was confirmed to himself
in 1812, when, contrary to the will of England, he insisted on
the Servians being permitted to govern themselves con-
stitutionally — a monument of his liberality at the present
day. He now demanded the restoration of the Greek
churches which the Turks had pillaged or destroyed, and of
all property belonging to those churches ; the protection of
the Greeks from the barbarities of the Mahometan soldiery, and
in the exercise of their religion ; a proper distinction between
the innocent and the guilty ; reparation for the murder of the
Patriarch, and the gross insults which followed it ; and secu-
rity for the future peace of the Greeks. In conclusion, if
these demands were not complied with, he declared " Turkey
would be placed in a position of open hostility with all the
Christian world; that it would render the Greek defence
lawful, as they would be merely fighting to resist inevitable
ruin, and Russia would be compelled to offer the insur-
gents an asylum and protection, because she could not
deliver her Christian brothers to the mercy of a blind fana-
ticism.*'

When this message was received by the Porte, it required
the influence of all the foreign ambassadors to prevent
Strogonof being imprisoned, like more than one of his prede-
cessors, in the dungeons of the Seven Towers. He sailed for
Odessa, August 9th, 1821, and met with a cordial greeting from
his Sovereign, both at Vitepsk and St. Petersburg. As soon
as he was gone, the Turks sent an answer to Alexander's
ultimatum, and antedated it July 26th, the last day assigned
for its reception. The Sultan tried to justify the murder
of the Patriarch by the alleged discovery of letters implicating
him in the disturbances in the Morea, but these letters were
never produced ; and also said it was the violence of the dregs

\

\

Cojispiracies and Hevolutiofis. 305

of the people^ exasperated by those disturbances which had
caused the indiscriminate massacres^ and the destruction of the
churches. Orders were given to rebuild them^ and if
Alexander would deliver the Greek refugees (who amounted to
four thousand at Odessa alone), all the treaties with St.
Petersburg should be faithfully executed.

In the mean time Ipsilanti^s band was defeated, and their
leader fled to Transylvania, where he was quickly consigned to
an Austrian dungeon, and it was only on Russia's remon*
etrauce that he was at last released. By refusing to aid him^
Alexander hoped to serve essentially the whole body of
Christians in the Turkish Empire. He knew if Russia showed
the least disposition to profit by the struggle, or even tempo*
rarily occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, Austria was prepared
to help the Turks with an army in Epirus and Greece, and the
insurrection would at once be set down as a Russian intrigue
for the destruction of the Turkish Empire, and such, notwith*
standing his cautious policy, it was very generally deemed.
He hoped in this instance to bring the grand principle of the
Holy Alliance to bear upon the point of dispute, and by a
united and energetic remonstrance on the part of all the
Christian Powers to procure a semi-independent government for
Greece without going to war. And every thingmight undoubtedly
have been so arranged, if jealousy of Russia and her form of
Christianity had not stifled all other feelings in the minds of
the statesmen of Europe. Metternich worked to draw off" the
Russian army to put down the insurrection in Spain ; and
there is no doubt that a war with Turkey would have
entailed a war with Austria (probably aided by I<Vaiice and
England) ; for in 1828, Russia was only left unmolested to
carry on hostilities with the Porte by the declaration of
Charles X., that at the first shot fired by Austria on Russia,
he would pour his army into Germany and Italy. But at this
time Louis still occupied the throne of France, hating Russia
all the more for his weight of obligation, and anxious to
occupy his restless people with a popular war. Alexander
remembered Pitt's assertion when the British Government
remonstrated at the annexation of Georgia, " that the English
people could not be induced to permit the destruction of the
Turkish Power.'' They had a traditionary attachment to the

VOL. III. z

800 Conspiracies and Revolutions,

Porte. If he attacked Turkey single-handed, he -would at
otice be opposed by all Europe, and he had not forgotten the
secret treaty at Vienna ; so that the forces intended to deliver
the Greeks would be wasted in defending his own empire.
Only nine years had passed since an invasion which Napoleon
himself thought Russia could not recover for one hundred
years, and his people were still paying the extra income-tax,^
levied to support that war, and not taken off till 1823. Time was
e.osential to his finances before beginning another ; and he was-
still carrying out reforms and improvements in his empire, for
which money was his most urgent need. What adequate advan-
tage had the costly wars for the deliverance of Germany and
France, and the last war with Turkey, really brought to Russia ?'
Might not another, though equally successful, have the same
result ? What had he not sacrificed to satisfy Poland's cry for
independence ? and she was already the vxdnerable point in his
empire where Austria could carry on intrigues in case of a
dispute. To make use of Russia and then turn against her
was the system invariably pursued by her allies. A tedious
campaign might only end when Russia was exhausted, by
the other nations of Europe closing in and wresting Turkey
from her grasp ; and as was the case in 1792, the Greeks
might sufi'er all the moie for the efforts Russia made in their
behalf. There was a very small Russian fleet in the Black
Sea, while the Turkish navy was well manned and sti'ong.
Tlic Russian fleet in the Baltic, blocked in for half the year By
ice, could only be serviceable to Greece iu case of England's
assistance, as she must pass Gibraltar, and have a port to refit
in the Mediterranean Sea, and a fleet was essential to protect
the Greek Islands and the Morea from the extremes of
Turkish vengeance while Russia was advancing with her
armies from the north.

Castlereagh addressed an elaborate letter (July 16th, 1821)
to Alexander, to dissuade him from any interference in the
affairs of Greece ; and from that time till Alexander's death
an active correspondence was kept up on the subject with the
British Government, which after stating that it did not consider
the disputed points justified a war between Russia and
Turkey, at last definitely declined to join in any protest^
or take any measure tending to release the Christian subjects

Conspiracies and Revolutions. 807

of the Sultan irom his control. Then Alexander^ who
had long been silently preparing his army, and collecting
funds to enable him to support the war^ single-handed if neces-
sary^ against all Europe^ sent in his final ultimatum to the
Turkish Government, when his death, and the ensuing troubles
in Russia, postponed the war, and perhaps saved the Ottoman
Empire.

A conflict between Turkey and Russia in 1821-2 must
have been desperate, for the formidable guard of Janissaries
still existed, and bands of Asiatic fanatics were being collected
from all parts of Asia Minor to join in what was termed " a
holy war of extermination against the Muscovites.^^ But
Russia possessed a more tried and enthusiastic army than in
1828. Alexander was himself an experienced general, perhaps
the best in Russia, and would have led them with all the
prestige obtained by previous victories. In the seven years'
struggle the Greeks in the Peloponnesus were reduced to half
their number, and their country turned into a desert. The
Christian population in Roumelia could never have been much
support, for they were without arms, but they were also deci-
mated, so that in 1828 Russia had no other ally in the war.

In a memorandum (April, 1822) Wellington enumerates the
four points, " the adoption of which by the Porte would induce
his Imperial Majesty to resume the diplomatic relations of his
Court with the Porte.'' They were those already stated, and
also that the Porte should withdraw its troops from Moldavia
and Wallachia, and name the Hospodar for the government of
these provinces in conformity to the treaty with Russia.
'' The justice of these demands,'^ he adds, " has been admitted
by all the allied Courts, and they have been urged upon the
Porte, who neither denies their justice nor declines to carry
them into execution." However, in the delay which had
elapsed before carrying them into execution Russia increased
her demands on account of the ferocity the Turks displayed
toivards their Christian compatriots, and placed a proposal
^' under the consideration of the allied ministers at different
Courts for the adoption of a plan for the amelioration of the
condition of the Greeks under the rule of the Porte." The
Turks, suspecting this, " had more than once called upon the
allied ministers at Constantinople to guarantee them from

x2

SOS Conspiracies and Revolutions.

ulterior demands of Russia/' ....*' It will be necessary to
bring back the Russian demands to the exact state in which
they were defined when first made^ and then to convince the
Porte that no more is in contemplation than expressed in the
original demands/' If a war breaks out between Russia and
Turkey, the Duke entertains ''no doubt as to the result.
The Turkish Government in Europe will, in fact, be destroyed,
which will probably be the smallest misfortune consequent on
this state of things. This alone ought to induce us to adopt
some strong measure to extricate the world from the existing
difficulties. But when we consider that the serious operations
in which the Emperor of Russia will be involved in the east
of Europe must occupy his whole force; that the occupation
chalked out for the Austrians in Italy, and which the events
in the east of Europe will tend to render more onerous, will
take up their whole force; and that there is nothing which
can be trusted to check the tide of revolution fipom the Atlantic
to the Austrian frontiers; that the first step taken by the
Emperor of Russia in the course of this warfare will give rise
to a. most important question between him and the Emperor of
Austria, the diflSculty of solving which will be augmented by
every subsequent step ; and that these difficulties can end only
by putting the two Imperial Courts in positive opposition to
each other, and by the dissolution of the quintuple alliance,
and probably a general war in Europe — I think it will be
admitted that we should allow no trifling consideration, nor no
speculation upon the advantage of having our ambassador at
the Forte at a particular period, nor upon the difficulty of
getting him Lack again, to prevent us from taking a step
which may preserve peace and all its existing advantages. It
must be observed that if it is right to adopt these measures ''
(recalling the English ambassador till the Emperor of Russia's
first demands were complied with), ''no time should be lost in
adopting them. If the Principalities are not evacuated, I
don't see how the Emperor can avoid marching early in June."
But in spite of the massacre of Chios, and the proclamation of
their national independence by the Greeks, the English Cabinet
could not be brought to take even so strong a measure as the
recall of her ambassador. Lord Strangford, who was supposed
to have great influence over the Divan, and to be exerting

Conspiracies and RevoluHcms, 309

I

it successfully to preserve peace and for the British interests.
The British ministers hardly regarded those as Christians who
adorned their churches with pictures and kept the days of
saints ; they rather preferred the ^^ sublime simplicity " of the
Mahometan worship ; and to induce Alexander to shut his eyes
to the slaughter of his co-religionists, they sent the Duke of
Wellington to the Congress of the Allied Sovereigns, who met
at Vienna and Verona in October, 1822. He went with
instructions to advise non-interference, and if possible to main-
tain the grand alliance.

CHAPTER VII.
1821—1825.

THE LAST YEARS OF ALEXANDER'S REIGN.

-STAT. 43—47.

WHEN Alexander returned from Laybach he found all
Russia greatly excited by the Greek Revolution^ and the
army eager to be led against the Tarks^ to gain laurels and
decorations under the eye of their monarch. Count Capo
d'Istria, the joint Minister for Foreign Affairs, a native of
Corfu^ was a member of a Greek society for the emancipation
of his race from the Mahometan yoke; and he worked
cautiously to instil his views into his colleagues^ while Nessel-
rode^ led by Mettemich^ acted according to the Austrian
minister's advice. '^ Metternich/' wrote Capo d'Istria, in
1825^ " h^ decided to re-establish the Sultan's authority over
this unfortunate people. During four years he paralyzed and
deceived the noblest sentiments without respect to the delicate
position of Russia^ nor to her interests^ abusing constantly the
confidence accorded to him^ and only making promises to break
them.'' Mettemich acted up to his professions as the patron
of tyranny ; but Great Britain^ the friend of national indepen-
dence^ sternly repressed any sympathetic movement in the
Ionian Isles^ and only used her influence so far over the Sultan
as to induce him to refrain from actually defying Russia^ and
giving her a personal grievance, regardless of the Greek heads
posted on the gates of the seraglio and the sounds of mourn-
ing rising up from every part of Greece. Canning (who suc-
ceeded Castlereagh) wrote, " there was certain^ sooner or later^
to be a war between Russia and Turkey, but the longer the
Allies could delay it the better /' and diplomatic negotiations
were protracted till the best part of the Greek population had
fallen victims to the violence of the Kurds and other wild

Tlie Last Years of Alexanders Meign. 311

tribes brought from Asia; and when Lord Strangfbrd suc-
ceeded in persuading the Sultan to allow Russian vessels to
^nter the Bosphorus (the Turks were beginning to feel some
inconvenience from the loss of Russian corn), the British
diplomatists thought the Emperor had no longer a cause for
4M)mplaiut.

Capo d^Istria's complicity in the Greek secret society caused
so much dissatisfaction to the Austrian Cabinet that he was
obliged to leave the Russian service, and at first retired to
Switzerland to watch the progress of events. Madame de
Krndener, his warm personal friend, had not ceased to plead
the cause of the Oreeks in St. Petersburg from the moment
the insurrection was announced ; and she preached to as large
an audience and with the same vehemence as formerly, when
die exhorted her auditors in Paris to repentance. In her
warmth she spared neither her Sovereign nor his ministers^
and aided by the press and the Russian clergy, who were in-
stilling the same enthusiasm into their flocks, she seemed likely
to work up the whole country to a pitch of frenzy against the
Turks such as it had felt in 1812, when invaded by the^rench.
At last (in 1821) Alexander broke silence, and in a letter of
«ight pages told her he earnestly desired to fulfil the will of
God, but could not yet, with consistency or with real advan-
tage to the insurgents, mix himself ULthe affairs of Greece.
He feared to favour revolutions which had already produced so
many victims and so few happy men, and he had contracted
obligations with his allies not to act in disunion with them,
and could not at present take another part with honour. Then
blaming the freedom with which she censured his Government,
he told her, as a friend, that in adding to the embarrassments
of his ministers and fomenting agitlitions round the throne, she
failed in her duties as a subject and a Christian, and her pre*-
sencc could not be tolerated in the capital unless she was
silent on conduct that he could not conform exactly to her
wishes. He sent this letter by Alexander Tourguenef,* who
was one of his household and her personal friend — a well-
known enlightened patriot — with orders to read the Ictterf to
her and bring it back to the Emperor. She listened with re-'

• Tourguenef 8 brothel was a conspirator,
t Yie de la Baronne de Kmdener, par M. Eynard.

812 Tlic Last Years of Alexander's Beign.

spect, but not being convinced, left St. Petersburg to join the
Princess Galitzin^ who had established a colony of Tartar con^
verts in the Crimea. Her son-in-law and daughter accom--
panied her ; and a French lady, said to be the once famous
Comtesse de la Mothe, sentenced by French judges to be pub-^
licly flogged and branded in the reign of Louis XVI. The
ladies preached in the open air to the wondering Mahometans
in Southern Russia; and Madame de Krudener died there
December 25th, 1824.

The revolutionary flame lighted throughout Europe inspired
the opposite party with corresponding alarm, and this regarded
Alexander* as the bulwark of vested interests &nd established
law. At Laybach he induced the King of Naples to offer a
constitution to his people — a promise afterwards withdrawn—
and restored peace to Italy. In Russia the ministers were
perplexed by the vague rumours of a conspiracy and the mutiny
in the Guards^ which seemed hardly explained, a»d those
among them who had once supported liberal measures now
became decided advocates of despotism. On their urgent soli-^
citation a censorship was put upon the press, though it was a
very mil4 one, for books were not admitted into Russia in the
reign of Nicholas which were freely circulated in the time of
Alexander; and although the Emperor could not be induced
to re-establish the secret police, Aratchaief and Miloradovitss^
maintained spies to enable them to search out the disturbers
of the peace in their respective departments. Prince Galitzin^
the Minister of Education and Public Worship, and Admiral
Shishkov, the Secretary of the Empire, both began to think
that the education of the working classes was an error, and had
been carried much too far; and the Archimandrite Photi
launched the thunders of the Church against the English Bible
Society, and those who advocated the translation of the Holy
Scriptures ; for several ignorant soldiers to whom they were
distributed cut off their hands, put out an eye, and otherwise
mutilated themselves, in obedience, as they supposed, to its
precepts ; others turned Jews, and a vast secession took place
to the numerous fanatical dissenting sects in Russia. To add
to the confusion, Magneski (Speranski^s colleague), now Gover-
nor of Kazan, propagated freemasonry and German illuministie

* See Madame de Genlis, &c.

The Last Years of Alexander 8 Reign. 313

ideas into his province^ so that Alexander is said to have re«
gretted the banishment of such staunch Churchmen as the
Jesuits. Photi^s correspondence shows his bitter hostility ta
Galitzin and Tourguenef, as well as to all who had advocated
the introduction of " the English heretics'^ into Russia :
'^ Tourguenef, who disputes the authority of us, the heirs of
the Apostles /^ and as his religious influence over Alexander
increased, he induced him to dismiss several foreign professors
in the Russian universities whom he thought used their power
to draw their pupils away from their fathers' faith. Still
nothing could persuade Alexander to give up his annual sub-
scription to the Bible Society, or to impede its work. Sera-
phim, the Archbishop of St. Petersburg, once its friend, followed
the course of the stream, and Aratchaief, the disciple of Photi,
was its deadly enemy. While Aratchaief worked assiduously
to protect Alexander from assassins or revolutionists, he tried
at the same time to undermine all who stood high in his
regard. With extraordinary want of foresight, he lost no op-
portunity of showing his dislike to Alexander's younger
brothers ; and when the Emperor was away from the capital,
and he was authorized to give out the daily orders to the aides-
de-camp, he delighted to keep Nicholas and Michael waiting
houra in his antechamber, transacting business with every other
official before he gave either of them an audience. His loud
Toice was often the only one Alexander could hear, for his>
deafness had much increased since 1818, and being variable,
important conversations with him were sometimes obliged to
be written down. During his long absences from St. Peters-
burg, and when he was ill in 1824, Aratchaief was his chief
substitute, and at other times seeing him daily, had more op-
portunities than any one else of imparting his own viewsr
His influence has, however, been overrated, and was certainly
on the wane when Alexander died.

Russia has never been a persecuting nation, but the spirit
of her clergy was roused now by the barbarities inflicted ou
their fellow religionists in Greece and the British sympathy
with Turkey during the contest. The English Evangelicals,
such as supported the Bible Society in St. Petersburg, called
the Greek form of worship idolatry ; and to Photi this intole-
rance seemed to explain the British policy^ which he thought

514 Ihe Last Years of Alexander s Beiyn.

— — — — — .^ *•

was exercising such a fatal influence over the Russian Cabinet,
and exasperated him to the borders of fanaticism in support of
A martyr Churcb. A Russian who had destroyed the picture of
the saint found in most houses of the lower class, was arrested
on the strength of an old law of Peter the Great, condemning
a man for such an offence to be imprisoned the first time for
a week in a monastery, the second to receive eight blows with
the knout, and the third to be discharged as incorrigible ; but
the Emperor, always inclined to mercy, practically dismissed
the case by writing underneath the sentence, '^ Let our illus-
trious ancestor's penalty for the third offence be adopted/'
With Photi all penitence was as nothing without almost life-
long penances, and Galitzin's extravagant youth was brought
forward by him as still existing sins, " because,'^ said the stem
monk, "he was not atoning for it by a sufficiently severe
penance." One day they met in the chapel of. the Countess
Orlof, and Photi reproached him for his toleration of the Pro-
testants, for the unexpiated follies of earlier days, and inti-
mated that his visits to the houses of the members of the
English Bible Society were actuated by less creditable motives
than religious intercourse. Galitzin appealed to the Emperor
for redress, but he refused to interfere. Galitzin was extremely
mortified, and his retirement in 1824 is supposed to have been
in consequence, although he still continued a constant guest
at the Imperial Palace.

The Emperor himself only intended the repressive measures
to be temporary, to tide over a disturbed epoch, like the sus-
pension of the Habeas Corpus Act during an Irish riot ; and
the statements of the conspirators on their trial in 1825 show
they were not instituted without a cause. Pestal, the most
able of those implicated, was colonel of the Viatka regiment,
and as early a$ 1817 organized a society called the Union of
Salvation, or Worthy Sons of the Country, with the object of
deposing the reigning family and establishing a republic ; and
the idea of a military insurrection occurred to them in 1821,
after the example of Spain and Naples. A meeting was held
in 1820 at St. Petersburg, in which the conspirators advocated
a republic, except Colonel Glinka, who proposed to offer the
<;rown to the Empress Elizabeth. At the next meeting all
voted against a monarchy ; even the British Constitution was

Tlie Last Years of Alexander 8 "Reign. 315

not sufficiently liberal. '^ Half-measures are no good/^ said
Pestal^ advocating the extermination of the Imperial family ;
^' we must make a clear house 'y^ and one enthusiast offered to
assassinate the Emperor with his own hand. Subsequently^
when they formed a union with a secret PoUsh association^
Festal inquired if its leaders were prepared to treat Constautine
as the Bussians were prepared to treat his brothers.; but was
Answered, '^ No Pole had ever imbrued his hands in the blood
of his Sovereign/' Many Russian members also objected to
the murder of the Emperor, and Mouravief declared he would
rather kill himself ! Alexander's popularity was the greatest
obstacle to their measures, and Festal and his colleagues
laboured assiduously to undermine it. They circulated a report
that he meant to live in Warsaw and leave Russia to anarchy,
which produced a great impression ; and Alexander's character
was privately slandered in every way ; while he, utterly uncon-
scious of the opportunity it gave his enemies to propagate their
falsehoods, avoided society, and ■ spent his leisure in strict
retirement. Among the guards stationed about the palace
more than one conspirator was at different times placed at his
door to take his life, but at the last moment wanted resolution,
for Alexander's apparent confidence and absence of all precau-
tions proved a surer safeguard than his father's locked doors
and moated fortress.

Alexander's favourite abode was Czarco-Selo, where he
occupied two rooms ; but the gardens and park were open to
the public, whom he would not deprive of a favourite pro-
menade. He was impatient if offered a petition, for there was
a tacit understanding that he was not to be addressed during
his walks by his subjects ; a post-office a mile distant received
every letter directed to him, and they were duly placed on his
table the same day. As might be expected with 50,000,000
people, these letters and petitions were innumerable, often on
very frivolous mattci*s. Two secretaries assisted him tq read
them, and he spent more than two hours daily in this work
alone. In his absence thev accumulated, and on his return he
redoubled his exertions in getting through the pile : some with
a special address were forwarded to him wherever he might be ;
and except that he is said to have disregarded warnings of the
conspiracy, and occasionally complaints against his ministers^

316 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign.

there is no proof that he ever neglected giving them due
attention ; but if he had been liable to incessant importunities
whenever he was met in the wide grounds at Czarco-Selo, he
must have limited his exercise to the palace. He was not in-
exorable. If the petitioner persevered in spite of a few severe
words, he generally obtained his end. A lawyer had a client
who rented a wine cellar in some buildings sold to the Crown
for the sake of being removed for the embellishment of the
city. One of the clauses of the lease provided that, if sold,
the wine mercbant should receive from the purchaser 23,000
roubles as an indemnity for having to turn out. The lawyer
thought the Government bound to pay this sum as it pur-
chased the building, and his client refused to stir till it was
paid. The works remained in suspense, and the wines were
being forcibly removed. The lawyer set out for Czarco-Selo,
but he did not find the Emperor. In a second attempt he
met him, but Alexander simply bowed and went on, returning
into the palace, and the same evening to St. Petersburg. A
fortnight afterwards, hearing the Emperor was again at Czarco-
Selo, he made a third and last eflbrt. It was late in the
autumn, and as u north-east wind was blowing violently through
the park, it was deserted by everybody except the Emperor and
the petitioner, who this time spoke. The Emperor said, rather
sharply, ^^ Sir, put on your hat ; the air is too cold to remain bare-
headed.^' The young man thought he ought not to obey.
'' Cover yourself, sir,^^ Alexander added, more impatiently ; and
as the lawyer still hesitated, the Emperor took hold of the hat,
and pressed it on his head himself. Then the lawyer rapidly
made his request. Alexander listened, and said in a severe tone,
'^ Take care, sir ; do not deceive me ,- remember the money of
Russia is not mine. On what do you found your claim?'*
" Sire/' said the lawyer, '^ here is a petition.'' " I shall not take
it, sir," he answered, " for to-morrow I shall be presented with
a thousand. Look there," pointing out St. Sophia (a small
town), " put that paper in the post-office. I shall receive it
in an hour." " I will run there. Sire ; but at least will your
Majesty deign to cast your eyes over the clause of the lease ?"
and he held the contract open. The Emperor read it rapidly
through, and walked away saying, " The claim appears to me
to be just; to-morrow the money shall be paid." And it was. j

The Last Years of Alexander s Ueign. 317

A foreign lady, whose husband was condemned for forgery to
the mines, waited in the park at Czarco-Selo with her six
children, the youngest an infant in her arms, and threw her-
self on her knees at the Emperor's feet to ask for a pardon.
He would not listen till she rose, and then he said, ^^ Madam,
I am extremely sorry for you and for these children, but I
cannot interfere with the course of justice/' " Ah, Sire,'' she
replied, " does not the Bible say, ' Judge not, that ye be not
judged,' and that those who refuse to forgive others must not
expect their own sins to be forgiven ?" " Madam," he said, ^^ I
have no personal enmity against your husband ; he has broken
the laws of the country, and as guardian of the law I am
bound to protect it." Nevertheless, her husband received a
considerable mitigation of his sentence.

An English lady was walking with some friends in the
garden at Czarco-Selo, when two dogs running by the side of
a gentleman at a little distance came towards her, and much
frightened her. Their master called them away, and then
came up, bowed, and apologized, and was going to walk on ;
when she, being a stranger, anxious to know the names of the
various buildings in sight, detained him to ask him a few
questions. He told her the history of the diflFerent monu-
ments, and was again about to withdraw when she said, '^ But
I want most of all to see the Emperor ; where am I likely to
do so ?" '^ Oh, you are certain to see him soon enough,
madam," he said ; ^' he often walks here ;" and bowing, he
retired into a neighbouring wood. A little further on she
met a Court official, and inquired who the officer was, describing
his dogs, and that he was deaf. '^ That was the Emperor," he
«aid ; " I saw him myself a few minutes ago." *

The park of Czarco-Selo, which was under the charge of
military invalids, is dotted over with monuments of Catherine's
wars and treaties : obelisks, pillars, and kiosks to the memory
of Repnin, Romanzov, Orlof, Lanskoi, and Potemkin ; it
encloses hothouses producing quantities of rare fruits, which
Alexander sent as presents to his officers and the people round,
ft farm containing the finest specimens of various breeds of
cattle, lamas presented by the Mexican Viceroy, and flocks
of merino sheep ; for the Emperor was anxious to improve
farming and agriculture throughout his empire. His rooms.

318 The Last Years of Alexander 8 Heiffn.

as still shown^ contained a small collection of books^ among
others the works of Fenelon, Moore, and Sir Walter Scott ;
several writing-tables^ a strong eyeglass on each^ and a hard
narrow camp bed or sofa without curtains, blankets, or sheets^
but a leather mattress and pillow stuffed with straw in a
recess ; an English shaving-case, and a shower-bath.

" I do not know if I deceive myself,'^ writes M. Dupre de
St. Maure,* " but I frequently observe in Alexander's features
a sad and painfully preoccupied expression. If I meet him on
the high road when alone iu his carriage and he does not try
to compose his face, I recognize that same expression. How
many times I have said to my wife, ' I have just seen the
Emperor. Ah 1 what shadows and uneasiness there were on
his brow !' Nothing is more painful than to be forced to
suspect a secret cause of bitterness in him whose glory and
happiness is envied by all the world, or to perceive mental
sufferings in the powerful being who gives no one else a cause
for grief. The kind of life this prince has adopted for some
years shows a deep-seated melancholy. In the prime of life
he leads a sad and solitary existence. In all seasons he works
from six till eight, then walks, and returns to breakfast.
At twelve he drives with a servant to Paulovsky to see the
Princesses (the Orand Duchess Nicholas and the Empress-
Dowager}, returning he dines alone or with the Empress, and
walks some time. He comes home and is seen no more. Ho
devotes to work or to dreamy walks the hours a Sovereign
generally enjoys in friendly society ; this is his country life.
In the winter palace, except some slight changes, it is the
same. At nine a.m. I see him punctually resort to the exer-
cising hall to review his mounted guard. Towards noon he
goes often on foot, and always without attendance, to see the
Grand Duchesses; towards two he returns, dines, and all is
ended as at Czarco-Selo. I have only seen him once at the
public theatre. The representations of the Hermitage are
quite given up ; he very rarely calls on a private family to talk
at his ease — formerly it was one of his chief pleasures. He is
remarkable for an extreme simplicity and repugnance to the
ceremonial of the throne — as if he wished to be the Emperor
as little as possible. Except at the grand reviews, where he
* L'Hermite en Bassie. He filled a i^ost in the Imperial honsehold.

The Last Years of Alewandera Beiffn. 81 Q'

18 surroanded by a numerous suite^ he always goes alone and
without escort. He only assists at great solemnities when
tradition requires his presence. Though writing and speaking
veiy purely several languages, he is said to be indifferent to
literature^ except M. Karamzin, who sometimes talks with
him.''* Yet Dr. Lyall, writing in 1825^ calls him '^ the patron
of arts, science, literature, and information of every kind.'^
He presented books and astronomical instruments to the
Dorpat University, and 30,000 volumes after the fire of 1812
to the University of Moscow, besides an anatomical cabinet
which he purchased for 10,000 roubles, and a museum of
natural history. His efforts to extend education among all
classes of his people, far exceeding those of any of his pre-
decessors, have been described^ as well as his early taste for
music, painting, and reading ; and it was to his credit that he
did not indulge it when his whole energies were required by
so many more important objects. " The diplomatic corps, sa
feted in the time of Catherine^ only see his Majesty, except in
private audiences, three or four times a year, when he holds
a grand Court. In the coldest weather he escapes from the
city to go. and pass three or four days at Czarco-Selo: he
takes with him only the aide-de-camp on duty, yet often this
officer never sees him, except when he crosses his apartment
to go and walk in the gardens. In short, on the most elevated

throne he leads almost the life of an anchorite A minister

cannot partake of the pleasures of his master who never tastes
any. His love of order, and of an extreme cleanliness, shows
itself in little things. All the tables and desks on which he
writes are admirably neat ; he wiU not put up with the least
disorder nor the least trace of dust^ nor the smallest morsel
of paper not belonging to his work. On all his desks there
is a handkerchief of folded cambric and ten pens newly
mended ; these pens are replaced if they have only served for
a signature. Emancipation is one of his ruling ideas. A
great part of the acts of his Government bear the impression
of it. Under preceding reigns the Crown inherited from a
proprietor who died without relations. Now such a one must

* At this very time Karamzin, Glinka, and Krasenstern were all
PHbUsliing their works at lus expense ; and the poetess Anna Bnnina
nad been sent at his cost to England for medicsd act vice.

320 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign,

free his serfs^ and then may dispose of his own wealth. The
Government inherits only in case a seigneur has no heirs and
dies intestate. The Sovereign's foresight opens many ways
to serfs to make themselves heard^ and everybody agrees these
people are admirable in the expression of their grievances.
He then orders a rigorous inquest, and if the complaint is
true he punishes the oppressor with formidable severity. We
have seen 8eigneui*s degraded from their military rank, and
women shut up in a convent. I have been a witness of several
brilliant acts of Imperial justice. When Alexander is con-
vinced of the cruel government of an estate he names a com-
mission charged to receive the revenues, and from that moment
the nobleman loses all the rights he abuses/' Count Sergius
Romanzov, brother to the Chancellor, gave entire liberty to
his serfs.

'^The Emperor sets out for Little Russia on the next
26th of August (1821). This journey will cover an extent
of 7450 versts. He will return to the capital November 2nd
(o.s.). Once fixed, his projects are immovable. We shudder
to see this Sovereign incessantly traverse immense distances
at a tremendous speed. He has met with accidents, leaving
traces that medical science cannot efface, but his punctuality
makes his doctors despair. These distant journeys are so
much the more fatiguing, as he must arrive in such a place at
such an hour for fear of keeping some regiment or some
division waiting which he was to meet. After two or three
days passed in a carriage the uncrowned traveller gives himself
up to rest and refreshment, but the Emperor relaxes himself
from one fatigue by another. A regiment is reviewed. Govern-
ment officials received, military colonies visited, an establish-
ment created, plans examined, &c. Sleep and food have great
trouble to glide into the leisure of so busy a life.^^ On one
of these journeys (frequently over very bad tracks, and which
another French writer* observes are scarcely credited in
France), Volkonski accompanied him in the same carriage, and
fell asleep; when ascending a steep hill the horses stopped,
and the carriage began to recoil. Without awakening his
aide-de-camp, Alexander immediately jumped out, and assisted
in pushing the vehicle from behind, while the horses were

* Domas.

The Last Tears of Alexander's Bei^n. 321

dragged up ; and the change of movement rousing Volkonski
as the horses reached the summit^ he saw the Emperor^
covered with dust^ taking his place again by his side. '^ Ah^
Sire/' he said, " why did you not awaken me V " It is all
right/' answered the Emperor ; " you were asleep, and sleep is
too precious to be disturbed/' And he added lower, as if
speaking to himself, " It brings forgetfulness/' Another of
his aides-de-camp was driving with him, and also went to
sleep, when his cloak, not being fastened properly, was blown
open by the wind. His Sovereign buttoned it for him, lest
he should take cold. A snow-storm once obliged him to
shelter in a peasant's hut and remain there for several hours,
when becoming faint for want of food, the peasant's wife pro-
duced some of her own humble fare, and the Emperor paid
her* about a hundred times the worth of what he ate ; but he
took bottles of Neva water in his carriage, lest he should be
unable to obtain good water on the road.

To one of his family who asked Alexander if more amuse-
ment would not be good for his health, he replied it was time
his short leisure hours were spent in trying to expiate the
faults of his reign. He told the Prussian Bishop Eylert,
whom he met in Berlin in 1818, that he had formerly sought
mental peace in diversion, but it was only since religion
became the chief object of his life that he had found it,

* In 1824-5 a working maa could buy more black bread in St. Peters-
burg thau he could eat in a day for a sum equivalent to an English half-
penny ; beef cost 2\d. per lb. ; an entire quarter of a lamb, Is. ; a shoulder
of mutton, 6d.; and other things in proportion. Much has been said
about the small salaries of Eussian officials being the cause of their dis-
honesty ; but the judges and governors in Denmark had as small a salary,
and were noted for meir integrity, and the Bussian officials were often
lodged and their children educated at the (Government expense. It was

f ambling and the extravagaat tastes introduced by Catherine II. which
ept tibe Eussians poor, and peculation had been general since the dajrs
of Ivan the Great. Alexander said that the officials would steal lus
ships if they knew] where to hide them, and would draw his very
teeth if they could do it without awakening him ; and the ** severity" of
which many complained in the latter part of his reign, was directed far
more against roboery, extortion, and bribery than revolutionists. On one
occasion he sent 300,000 roubles to a distressed province, and not a kopek
ever reached it. But while the sei^ators were glad to mark out the last
for punishment, they were always ready to protect the first; and it is only
since the higher education ho introduced nas borne its fruits in a second
generation, uiat in this respect the Government has been able to effect
any real improvement

VOU III. Y

322 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign,

thougli it was not at once.* Even Dr. Lyall writes in 1824"
that Alexander ^^ has become an example for good principles
and conduct to the potentates of Europe. He really seems^
to be a chosen vessel^ and to have said in all sincerity, ' May
I govern my passions with absolute sway, and grow wiser and
better as life wears away.' Judging from the past we may
prognosticate much happiness for Russia if it pleases Provi*'
deuce to prolong his years. The ardour and inexperience of
youthful passion are replaced by coolness, vigour, and perse-
verance in a private and public course of virtue. The deeds
of his life will entitle him to the gratitude of the living, and
his memory will be venerated not only as the great but as the

good Alexander.^^t

The father of Festal succeeded Speranski in the government
of Western Siberia, and was one of the most cruel viceroys
Russia ever possessed. A citizen of Tobolsk was deputed by

* Eylert's account of the last years of Alexander contains most extra-
ordinary inaccuracies. He was chaplain to Frederick Williani m. Peter
the Great suffered so much from melancholy in the last years of his Ufd
that the burlesqne of the election of a Patriarch, and ice mountains, now
a popular amusement, were introduced in the hope of diverting his mind.

t i)r. Lyall, who lived many years in Eussia, and is by no means par-
tial, also says, " It cannot for a moment be contested, even by his enemies^
that Alexander is not an excellent Sovereign for Russia . . . the greatest
blessing and ornament of his country. . . . Few despots have swayed
such a powerful sceptre with equal gentleness and mercy. His solicitude
for the good of his country, and his humanitj*', deserve the highest enco-
miums. . . . When we candidly take into account the extremely corrupt
Court at which he was educated, his early marriage, perhaps not with
the object of his choice, the temptations by which so young a Sovereign
was surrounded, and the extreme jealousy and rigid coolness of £0
Empress, we must think his failings greatly palliated, if not excused . . .
perhaps not one in a thousand would have conducted himself so well as
Alexander. As his years have increased, so has his wisdom, and I am
assured he now shows his regret at the frolics of his 3'^outh by repentance
and the kindest conduct to his Imperial consort, with whom he passes
much of his spare time in the evenings. During the campaign he was an
example to the whole army ; his exemplary endurance of privations, cold,
hunger, and fatigue animated his troops. His activity and solicitude
were equally the theme of praise, while his affability and conciliatory
manners gamed him all hearts. His simplicity of manners and mode of
life are very praiseworthy. He sleeps upon a hard mattress, whether
in the palace or in the camp; he rises early, lives very moderately,
employs much time in public affairs, and is indefatigable m his labours.
He is extremely firm, and even obstinate in his own opinions. His chief
amusement, if such it may be called, seems to be the organization and
discipline of the army." Of Constantine, Dr. Lyall ^writes : " It is said
he has begun a reformation, and it is to be sincerely hoped it may be
completed before he ascends the throne of his country. But as the
iEmperor is not much older than he, enjoys good health, and lives most

The Last Years of Alexanders Beiffti. 32JJ

his fellow-townsmen to cany a complaint to the Emperor^
and to elude suspicion took a circuitous route^ and delivered
his petition into Alexander's hands at Czarco-Selo^ entreating
him to read it through. Alexander was shocked at the
account he read^ and talked with the citizen for some time, till
convinced that his story was true. At last he sadly said to
him, " Gro home now, brother j the affair shall be examined.''
" Sire/' replied the citizen, " I cannot go home ; rather order
me to go to prison. My conversation with your Majesty will
not remain a secret. I shall be killed." The Emperor
seemed startled, and sent for Miloradovitz, the Grovemor of
St. Petersburg, telling him he must answer for the citizen's
life. ** Then allow me, Sire," said Miloradovitz, *' to take him
with me to my own house. I can only insure him there." And
the citizen accordingly remained in it till the affair was ended.
Festal was dismissed by a ukaz dated February 2nd, 1822, on
the ground of bribery and extortion, and two civil governors
and 678 public functionaries in Siberia shared his punish-
ment ; but they had so many friends among the commissioners
appointed to examine the matter, and also in the Senate, who
helped them out of every diflSculty, that their judges would
inflict no heavier punishment, and though the Emperor some-
times availed himself of his prerogative on the side of mercy,
he never overruled the decision of his law courts so far as ta
increase a penalty. Festal was living in St. Petersburg in
poverty at the insurrection of 1825.

temperately, the probability is that he will ontlive CoTiBtantine, and who
can say tiiat the Emperor may not again become a legitimate father P . . .
Traly the Enssians have no just cause to be discontented with their
Sovereign, who has ever shown the ntmost wish to raise their character
and to elevate them in the rank of nations." This testimonjr, written
within a year of Alexander's death, besides many other authentic proofs,
is of more value than the unsupported charges of those who tried to
flatter his successor by depreciating his energy. It was to Nicholas's
credit that he admired his brother's self-denying exertions in carrying on
his duties, and was prepared to imitate them, and Bussia may thank the
conspirators of 1825 for turning him away from the liberal views of his
youtn to the most Ihorough despotism. All Bussian Conservatives
asserted that Alexander's mistaken uberalitv was the cause of the troubles
which surrounded the throne in his last days, when the very men, like
PestaJ, who owed to him Uieir position in the empire, conspired to
depose him. Their crude ideas were enough to convince him that the
Tier* Etat were not yet ripe for representation in Bussia ; and their con-
spiracy, and the measures thought necessary to repress it, prevented the
reign of Nicholas being a progressive continuation of that of Alexander I.

Y 2

324 The Last Years of Alexanders Beiffn.

The Grand Duke Michael was ill in the spring of 1821^
and went to try the waters of Carlsbad. On his return he
visited Warsaw^ where Nicholas and his wife were shortly
expected^ after their long sojonm in Germany. Constantine
referred to the increasing melancholy of the Emperor^ and
then for the first time told Michael he had waived lus claim
to the throne. " Grod grant we may not live to witness the
greatest misfortune that can happen to Russia — ^the loss of the
Emperor/' he said ;* '^ but if Fate decrees this blow should fall
on us before my deaths I have solemnly vowed in my own
inind to renounce the Crown. I so love and honour my
brother Alexander that I am filled with grief and horror at
the idea of occupying his place ; and my wife does not belong
to any sovereign house^ and is also a Pole ; so the nation could
not feel confidence in me, and our mutual relations would
always be equivocal. In the mean time it must remain a
secret between ourselves ; but if ever Nicholas should speak to
you on this subject^ assure him for me that I shall be his
faithful servant to the grave wherever he pleases to employ
me ; and if he should die in my lifetime^ I will serve his son
with the same zeal, perhaps even with more, because he bears
the name of my benefactor.'*

The reserve maintained on so important a matter was due
to the wish of Constantine himself, and also to his mother,
whose early ambition to govern the empire revived at the
prospect of her eldest son's premature decline. If Nicholas,
whom she had brought up and still treated like a boy, was to
succeed his brother, she imagined that she could reign under
his name, and by finding him constant trivial occupation in
addition to his military duties, she tried to prevent him from
acquainting himself with public afiairs; but ^^he, notwith-
standing his religious respect for her, knew soon how to free
himself from a dependence that his duty forbid him to
support.t I was struck," writes Marmont in 1826, ''with
her imposing but theatrical manner. She sought to make
efiect by her discourse and striking words. Her active spirit
renders her ambitious and greedy of power." Her majestic
and hale appearance is described by another traveller in 1824,
and that even at the age of sixty- four her waist was trh-serrij

* KorfTs Accession of Nicholas I.
t Marmont's Memoirs, book 23.

Tli,e Laat Years of Alexanders Reiffn. 325

so as to colour her face ; and she made a poiut of dressing
precisely like one of her younger daughters. Both Marmont
and Wellington^ who visited Warsaw after Alexander's death,
aflSrm that Constantine evidently regretted the throne^ and
that his abdication had cost him a great struggle. Wellington
writes that, " Ever since the death of the Emperor Paul the
whole family have been impressed with the apprehension of
an attack which was to cut them all off. The Grand Duke
Constantine, though respected on account of his talents and
other qualities, is not very mild in his temper or manner, and
it is supposed that it was a favourite object to set him aside,
as the risk of the misfortune woiQd be greater during his
reign than if any of the other brothers should be upon the
throne. His consciousness of the truth of these reasons in*
duced him to make no objection/'* and this opinion is corro-
borated by the official correspondence between Alexander and
Constantine in 1822, when the Emperor wrote it was " a new
proof of Constantine's sincere attachment to the welfare of the
empire, and of his care for its stability and happiness.'' He
hoped, at the same time, that the Almighty would " bless the
consequences of such generous and disinterested intentions." f
It was a received opinion in the Imperial family, that though it
had been to the interest of Russia that Alexander should accept
the throne, however contrary to his own inclinations in 1801,
it was equally to her interest that Constantine shoiQd decline
it in 1822. Besides Nicholas and his wife the affair was only
confided to the Empress-mother, the Grand Duchess Mary,
who spent this winter at St. Petersburg, Aratchaief, Galitzin^
and the Metropolitan Philarete ; and the following year copies
of Constantino's renunciation, and a paper by Alexander ap-
pointing Nicholas his successor, were deposited in the cathedral
of Moscow and the archives of the Senate, not to be opened till
the Emperor's death unless demanded back by himself. Alex-
ander's manifesto concluded with a request, that ^^ As it had
ever been his highest earthly happiness to protect and foster
the welfare of his people, they would now offer up their earnest
prayers to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that in His
unspeakable mercy He may receive our soul into His eternal
kingdom."

The autumn of 1821 was passed by Alexander in his journey
* Wellington Correspondence. f S^ Korff.

826 The Last Years of Alexander s Beign.

to Little Russia, and an unusually cold winter set in, during
which, owing to several coachmen being frozen to death, he
passed a law prohibiting evening entertainments in St. Peters-
burg when there were seventeen degrees of frost. At the
annual blessing of the waters, January 6th, he would not
allow the usual escort of guards to be exposed to the weather,
though he stood as usual bareheaded and without gloves on
the ice during the prayers chanted by the Metropolitan, which
lasted twenty-five minutes. Three of the Emperor^s fingers
were frost-bitten, and had to be rubbed with snow before he
could venture into the palace, and one young courtier died from
the effects of cold. In the spring he went to Moscow and
Nijni Novgorod, where he had built bazaars for the annual
fair in place of those burned in 1817 at Makarief, where it
used to be held, and then set out for Yilna and Warsaw, on
his way to a congress assembled at Vienna to regulate the
affairs of Greece and Spain. The vigilance of the more loyal
Polish oflScials detected a communication between the secret
societies in the revolutionized parts of Europe and those of
Poland, and on this discovery Alexander addressed orders to
his Minister of the Interior, Count Kotchoubey, that in future
no official should remain in the public service who would not
bind himself to abandon any secret fraternity to which he

! might belong. " The existence in several countries/^ said the
Emperor, " of secret societies, which, under the name of Free-
I masons, had no other than benevolent ends, but some of which
shave meddled with politics, has ended by disturbing public
?peace. The result has been disorders which several Govern-
ments have resolved to suppress. Personally I have paid
minute attention to everything calculated to injure the empire,
^ and I ought to be more than ever vigilant at a time when,
unfortunately, the most insensate abstractions of modern philo-
sophy have elsewhere produced the most deplorable conse-
quences.'^ Pestal, and many others of the conspirators continued,
nevertheless, in the Government service. He had been a page
in the Imperial palace, and after receiving a wound at Borodino
had been nursed with the greatest care in the residence of the
Empress-mother. Glinka owed his education and everything
he possessed to the Emperor, but was led away by a desire to
leave a name in history, and imitate the revolutionary leaders
of other nations.

The Last Years of Alexander a Reiffn. 327

Alexander published a ukaz in September^ 1821^ announcing
the exclusive right of fishing, and the annexation of Amerisan
territory to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, where
Russian settlements had existed since the last century, and
which was first explored by Russian subjects. This produced
much correspondence with Great Britain. Three years after-
wards he relinquished his claim to some settlements further
south, as it would have otherwise involved a war with the
United States.

The disturbances in Spain still continuing, the merchants
•and other quietly disposed people in the country urged the
allied Sovereigns for assistance. In September, 1822, a fresh
insurrection broke out, and Spain and France both separately
requested Alexander's aid. France, anxious to employ her
dissatisfied troops, proposed to march an army to restore the
King if Alexander would send an army into Piedmont to over-
awe the French republicans in its absence. He stipulated
that the Spaniards should retain their constitution if the King
was restored. England wished to leave the Spaniards to settle
their own affairs, and objected to a constitution being imposed
on the King ; and Metternich advocated the same course in con-
yersation with the English ministers, while he urged Russia
to employ her armies in Western Europe, to draw them off
firom the direction of Turkev. Ch&teaubriand was sent as the
French representative to the Congress, but carefully concealed
the fact from the Emperor*^ that his Sovereign looked to the
annexation of the Rhine provinces as a recompense for settling
the affairs of Spain. Wellington attended the Congress for
England in place of Lord Londonderry (formerly Lord Castle-
reagh), who the previous August died by his own hand. He
arrived at Vienna September 29th, but finding it was removed
to Verona, to accommodate the Italian princes, he wrote home
for further instructions before he proceeded. Alexander came,
September 27th, accompanied by six aides-de-camp and Nes&el-
rode, and he was met at Verona by Prince Lieven and Fozzo di
Borgo from London and Paris, and Tatischef &om Vienna.
When the Comte de Noailles, Louis's ambassador at St. Peters-
burg, was retiring, the King sent a list of French nobles to
the Czar for him to select another envoy ; Alexander chose
yL, de Ferronays, who came on this occasion to Verona, and

* Chateaubriand's Congrfes de V6rone.

828 TAe Zast Tears of Alexander s Beiyn.

Count Caraman and the Due de Montmorenci were sent to
assist him. Lord Strangford^ the British ambassador to the
Forte^ had also arrived, the King of Prussia, and a host of
minor potentates, among others Napoleon's widow with her
second husband.

William Allen came to Vienna to request Alexander's
influence with Francis and the Kings of Sardinia and Naples,
to relax their intolerant measures towards Bible societies. Fro-'
testants, and all schools for the poor. The Czar denied the
story circulated in England, that he was closing his elementary
schools. On the contrary, their numbers were increasing.
They talked of the Greeks. " He seemed to feel deeply for
them, and said their rebeUion was organized by the revolu-
tionary secret societies, who wished above all things for a general
European war ; but they were certainly a most oppressed people,
though their resistance was premature, and they were now ten
times worse off than before.^' To a lady in Warsaw who appealed
to him on their behalf, he said the first movement of the Rus-
sians on the Danube would be the cause of a general massacre
in the Peloponnesus unless the Greeks were at the same time
protected by a fleet, for their position was so much exposed.
He undertook to show Allen's pamphlet on the slave trade to
Francis, and to ask him to let it be published in Austria.

Alexander was much annoyed by a statement in one of
Lord Strangford's despatches, that Russian agents had stirred
up the troubles in the Morea. In a note to Nesselrode, dated
Vienna, Oct. 2nd. Wellington* regrets that the Emperor should
have expressed his disapprobation through Nesselrode, and says :
'^Lord Strangford showed that the known conduct of his
Imperial Majesty's Government, the events which had occurred,
and every fact proved that it was impossible H.I.M.'s Govern-
ment could have had any concern in producing the insurrection
of the Greeks. If he did not proceed further to justify all the
servants of the Russian Government who had been employed in
the countries which were the seat of the insurrection, it was be-
cause his lordship had not in his possession the means of refuting
the assertions of the Ottoman Minister. The undersigned
regrets that when the precis of the conference of August 27th
was laid before H.I.M., the despatch of. September 3rd was not
likewise brought to his knowledge. If his Imperial Majesty had

• Wellington Correspondence for 1822.

The Last Years of Alexanders Reign. 82^

Been this despatch, the undersigned is convinced that those prin-
ciples of justice which direct every act of H.I.M/s glorious life
would have induced him to refrain from passing a censure on a
man to whom it is the greatest satisfaction that he has been the
instrument in the hands of his own Sovereign to forward the views
of H.I.M. in preserving the peace of Europe. — ^Wellington/'
The Duke wrote to Canning, October 4th, and described his
audience with Alexander the day before. *^ I told his Imperial
Majesty, if he had not commenced the subject I should have
mentioned it, as I really thought he had not done justice to
Lord Strangford, who had made such exertions to serve him
and forward his views of peace. I had brought with me a
copy of the despatch, taking out the names of the persons
mentioned, which I offered for his perusal. He asked, ^ Why
strike out the names ? why should I not be informed who is
accused, and what are the proofs V 1 answered, I could not
make myself the informant against his servants, particularly
having no proofs in my hands, and not b^ing certain that the
Ottoman Government possessed any. . . . His Majesty asked me
very abruptly whether the person charged was M. Capo d'Istria.
I answered No, and he then went into a long detail to prove,
from the manner of doing business in Russia, no order could
ever be sent by any minister, and no person to whom such
order was sent was justified in obeying it unless H.I.M.^s ap-
probation and signature were attached to it. The conversation
ended very quietly, H.I.M. declaring that he did not intend ta
censure Lord Strangford, that he would receive him perfectly
well (as he did afterwards) ; but he did not take from me the
despatch.^' Wellington doubts if the Emperor has it in his
power to remain at peace upon the terms of the original ulti-
matum (taking into consideration the state of his army, and
its dissatisfaction with his continuing in peace with Turkey).
" Since his ambassador withdrew from Constantinople, the Forte
have issued orders prohibiting vessels navigating these seaa
from the use of flags differing from the nation to which they
belong. The question is, whether it can be expected that the
Emperor of Russia, having such good grounds of complaint
against the Porte — having, as I have explained in another
despatch, such cogent reasons for war, can sit down quietly in
a worse situation than he was previous to the insurrection of the
Greeks ? . . . A great and powerful country like Russia cannot

830 The Last Years of Alexander's Bei^n.

sit quiet and see the prosperity of its most important proyinces
checked, and even destroyed, by the capricious orders of its
weaker neighbours ; and I am anxious that Lord Strangford
should be instructed to urge the Porte to give every facility to
the negotiation of those Powers for permission to pass whose
flags have not yet obtained it. The just rights of the Porte will
be preserved, and as the Russian commerce will then be upon a
better footing than before, ... it may be hoped this advan-
tage may enable the Emperor ta preserve peace. It is very
desirable everything should be done that is practicable to pre-
serve the general tranquillity. Exclusive of the disadvantages
which must be the result of engaging the Emperor of Russia
in hostilities in the East, aud of their probable success, thqr
must bring in collision the two Imperial Courts, or these
must agree in some partition of the advantages likely to result
from the contest. France cannot remain quiet under such
circumstances, and without reckoning upon revolutionary
movements which may be fairly counted upon as the conse-
quence of Russia being engaged in a contest in the East, we
must expect that these hostilities will eventually involve all
Europe. — ^Wellington/'

The Sovereigns and their councillors left Vienna for Verona,
where they arrived October 16th ; and Mettemich and Chateau-
briand successively appealed to Alexander to aid in suppressing
the Spanish revolutionists ; but as soon as the first ascertained
that, far from delivering the country to Ferdinand's vengeance,
it was his intention to insist on its Constitution being restored,
.he altered his tactics, and also urged Ch&teaubriand to move
Alexander in favour of peace. " Mettemich,'' says Chateau-
briand, " feigns to be a Russian while detesting Russia. He
talked to me of the aberrations of the Emperor Alexander."
Both the reports of Wellington and Cli&teaubriand agreed that
Metternich made different statements to them aud to Alexander
(" whom," says Sir Charles Stewart, " he never really
opposed"). Ch&teaubriand was equally displeased with
Great Britain. '^ Russia alone has been perfectly frank, con-
sistent, and noble-minded." He did not hide from Alexander
that the real aim of France in sending an army into Spain, to
restore order under the Due d'Angoulfime, was to assert once
more the military prestige of the Bourbons. *' Sire," he said, " I
think that Frauoc should lose no time in regaining by her own

The Last Years of Alexanders Beiffn. 831

exertions the rank which the treaties of Vienna caused her to
forfeit. With recovered dignity she will become a more useful
and honourable ally to your Majesty/' Alexander thought
it a bad principle to allow France to recommence her inter-
ference in other States. As she was resolved to go to war
to recover her lost position^ it was better to let her do it col-
lectively with the approval of her allies, and as only a member
•of the Alliance, than to leave her to assert herself indepen-
dently, and recommence the aggressive system which had made
her a curse to Europe ; but he restrained the King of Naples
from adding to the complication and, at the instigation of
Mettemich, leaving his States at the mercy of Austria to claim
the Regency of Spain, by recommending him to stay at home
and take care of his own people. It was also decided that
Austria should withdraw her troops from the Two Sicilies.

Ch&teaubriand had been introduced to Alexander in Paris,
but at first avoided a personal interview at Verona, being
afraid that his voice was not loud enough to make the Emperor
i hear. They passed each other daily in an early walk along
i the Adige, till one morning Alexander stopped to speak to
him. In a subsequent conversation he said his aim was to
prevent all selfish policy on the part of the great Powers, and
to admit of only a general policy to act in common for the
benefit of people and kings, lie had carried out this principle
with regard to Turkey, though nothing would have been more
advantageous to Russia than a religious war on behalf of the
Greeks, and every effort was made, including ridicule, to
induce him to break with his allies. Providence had not placed
S00,000 troops at his disposal for the gratification of his
ambition, but for the defence of religion, morality, and justice,
and to protect those principles of order on which human
society depends. '^Alexander was the only prince,'^ said
ChAteaubriand, '' for whom we ever entertained a sincere
attachment. What are all the other Sovereigns of the earth ?
— mere necessities V In their last meeting, an access of
melancholy came over him, and he broke off, shook his com-
panion by the hand, and walked away. Dr. Wylic afterwards
stated that he was very nervous and much depressed all the
time he was at Verona,* and the doctor advised him to divert

* Coant Caraman told Dr. Lee in 1826, that at Yerona he had often
taken l6ng walks with Alexander into the country ronnd, " and that he

882 Tlie Last Years of Alexander % Reiffn.

his mind by going to Bome^ a city he had always desired to
see ; but he said if he went there an old report would be
revived that he was about to become a Roman Catholic.

Wellington received instructions to preserve peace, espe-
cially between Russia and Turkey, and ^' not to discourage any
measures the Allies might think necessary to curb the in-
triguing spirit and repress the dangerous designs attributed to
this active and aspiring religious fraternity (the Jesuits), if
their concerns were brought under the deliberation of the
Congress/^* The independence of the Spanish and Portuguese
colonies was also acknowledged, and Wellington writes, that
^^ the Emperor of Russia is as much interested as ever in the
abolition of the slave-trade/' ..." We have had a stormy
week. Metternich afiraid lest the Emperor of Russia should
return to his capital in a bsid humour with the alliance.'^ . . .
"The terms of the ancient treaties between Turkey and
Russia,'^ he adds, " permit the Greeks to exercise the rites of
their religion unmolested, to rebuild their churches, and to be
free from persecution.^' . . . " I have seen the Emperor to-
night, and this was the conversation : ^ There are eight
Sovereigns here, with their ministers, and they all concur in
the absolute necessity of putting down this evil (the Spanish
revolution). The Sovereigns of Italy are not safe so long as
it lasts, nor is France nor Prussia, nor even I. The late
Spanish minister in Russia laid out large sums of money to
corrupt my officers and troops. I was obliged to send him
away. I have a report which I will show, made by the
Minister of War to the Cortes in a secret committee, showing
the state of their army; nothing can be more miserable, or
more destitute of resources than these people. I would attack
them with the French army, and move mine and others to
their support if wanted.' " Wellington pointed out the mili-
tary difficiQties which Spain presents. ' Well/ said the
Emperor, ' I will call upon you some of these mornings, and
we'll go to the bottom of the subject.'t From this con-
versation you see the idea of war is just as strong as ever.

was then afflicted with an unaccountable gloom and melancholy, and be-
lieved that he was destined to be miserable and unfortunate. He con-
ceived that this feeling, with the horrible attack meditated on his life,
reduced him to a state of utter despair, and rendered him anxious not to
live, and induced him to refuse all help." —Lee's Last Days of Alexander.
* Wellington Correspondence for 1822. f Ibid. •

Tlie Last Years of Alexander s Reign. 333

However^ I think if I can come to close quarters with him
upon the operations I shall put them out of his mind alto-
gether. He is too clear-sighted to go wrong if he cannot
obtain his object, which is any operation if possible, if not a
treaty/'

" I really believe/' he says again on the 28th, " the Emperor
is anxious to settle this Turkish question if he can. I believe
I told you it was my opinion, if he chose it, and we did not
interfere with a fleet in the Black Sea to prevent him, the
Emperor had it in his power to make the conquest of Con-
stantinople in one campaign. It is impossible that he should
not see the subject in this light ; . . . but he knows he would
lose a great proportion of his fine army in the operations
against Constantinople ; that the war would be one of peculiar
hardship and difficulties, rather than of manoeuvre and gal-
lantry to those who should carry it on ; that many would fall
victims to the climate, &c. . . . The Emperor of Russia is in.
fact in his person the whole Russian Government, and every
question into which he thinks proper to enter is decided
according to his own personal sentiments and views. There
is nobody better acquainted with the whole of the French
conduct and intrigues in Spain. ; nobody has a worse opinion
of their Grovemment and of their army.'' But the Duke
imagined that he wished to get out of the Turkish question,
'^ and in order to efiect this purpose, required the need of
some affair in Spain." The event proved he was hardly
just to Alexander, whose zeal in calming Spain was to enable
the Allies to turn their whole attention to Greece, without
fear of leaving Europe in a state of anarchy. This fear was
the motive held out by the British Government and Austria
for his non-interference in the affairs of Turkey ; and Metter-
nich intimated, if the revolutions could be quelled, Austria
would join Russia in proposing some arrangement for the
independence of Greece. Wellington adds, that Alexander was
very much displeased with the Spaniards, and he believed
with some reason, on account of the disrespect with which he
had been treated personally in Spain, and the conduct of the
Spanish minister at St. Petersburg. '^ It is not unnatural
that a Sovereign at the head of a million of men in arms,
among whom there have been some traces of a disposition to
mutiny^ should feel an inclination to destroy a system founded

334 Tke Last Years of Alexanders Beign.

upon a mutiny which is the daily topic of exultation and
boast in the country in which the system is established, and
among the Jacobin party all over Europe/'

Wellington again writes from Verona : '' I waited upon the
Emperor, who said he was not at all surprised at our course
respecting Spain ; he had always foreseen it, but he did not
think we were more disposed than others to protect Jacobina
and revolutionists ; that, even upon our own principles, the
conduct of these revolutionary fools was such as to require re«
pression. I answered, there was one ally of which his Majesty
had more than once availed himself, and that he appeared ta
me to have left entirely out of his calculations upon this occa-
sion. He answered, ' Which is it V I replied, ' Time/ Time
will remedy many of the evils complained of as resulting fit>m
the Spanish and other revolutions ; Time would strengthen
France and place her in a situation to be more able to act her
part in Europe, because in fact it was to France that we were
all to look for the danger by which we were likely to be
affected in consequence of the existence of revolutionary prin-
ciples. I then observed, ' I could not see France go to war
upon a revolutionary principle without feeling that the world
was in danger, and I would rather trust to time for a remedy
to the mischief to be apprehended from these revolutions than
incur such a risk.' The Emperor replied, while we were
waiting for the remedy of time much mischief would be done,
and the h(ms gens would be lost. ... He hoped I was satis-
fied with what he had done respecting Lord Strangford. I
told him that I was much obliged to him, and was convinced
that he had adopted the measures most likely to bring his
affairs at Constantinople to a satisfactory termination/'

Alexander thought the commonest feelings of humanity
must at last bring his allies to aid the Greeks by diplomacy,
if not by arms ; and after his death, when it was known the
Turks contemplated the entire extermination of the Greek
population, and planting Egyptian colonies in their place, they
began to see the affair from the Russian point of view, for the
young untried man who then filled the throne of Russia was
not the same object of jealousy as the Prince who had led her
armies from Vilna to Paris. Tatischef told the British minis-
ters at Verona that the good treatment of Greece was the sine

Tlie Last Years of Alexander b Meign. 335

quA non of his Majesty's reconciliation with the Porte ; and
Wellington wrote from St. Petersburg in 1826, '^ The success
of the other Powers in obtaining justice for the demands of the
Russians rather increases than diminishes their irritation, and
many of them think the late Emperor (Alexander) was cajoled
by the Allies to sacrifice the true interests of his empire in
order to attend to their interests in other parts of the world/^

The Servian ambassadors went to Constantinople by Alex«
ander's advice in 1820, but were detained there contrary ta
the law of nations ; the Morea was fast becoming a desert ;
and, as Wellington says^ '^ The system of disrespect, and in
some instances of insult^ to Russia which the Turks have pur*
sued, created a degree r>f irritation in St. Petersburg which it
is impossible to describe.^' And yet Great Britain, France,
Austria, and Prussia united in urging Alexander, for the sake
of the peace of Europe, of which he had constituted himself
the guardian, not to employ his forces in an absorbing war in
the East ; but when he proposed at once to secure the peace
of Europe by suppressing the revolutionist^^, England and
Austria endeavoured to hold him back. In this Spanish war
he saw the means of restoring Greece, and showed his consis-
tent liberality by wishing to give Spain a constitution. ^' It
is certain,'^ he said to Ch&teaubriand, ^^ that Ferdinand must
not be left to himself, as he will fall back on all the errors
that so nearly ruined Europe. He will need a council, both
as rein and bridle.^' But this policy was beyond the compre-
hension of his allies.

When Spain and Naples were both at peace he again sent
a memoir on the state of Greece to England and the great
Powers. '^ The deep and lively interest felt by his Majesty
and his nation for the fate of their co-religionists,^' was urged
as a reason for hastening the pacification. Yet so averse was
the Tory Government to assist the Greeks, that their ambassa-
dor told Nicholas in 1826, that when he had presented a re-
monstrance, if the Turks did not attend to it the British
Cabinet would not consider that as justifying war. At Verona,
in 1822, the Allies undertook to obtain satisfaction for Russia
in her demands on the Porte ; and after a long and diflScult
negotiation Alexander sent M. de Miniacky as his charge
d'affaires to Constantinople, December 1st, 1824, at which time

336 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign,

he had again urged the British Goyernment to comhine with
him in a joint note to the Porte, or to send a representative
to attend a conference at St. Petersburg. When both those
requests were coldly refused, and '^time'' again invoked as an
ally while the Turks sent an army of Asiatic fanatics to lay
waste Wallachia, Alexander resolved to separate from the
Alliance* and declare war himself on behalf of the Greeks and
the Christian population of Roumania; and that of 1828-9,
ending in the separation of Greece, was merely the result of
this determination. In 1826 Nicholas told Wellington that
he was his brother's heir by his will, and considered himself
bound to carry out his lastwishes and intentions as to the Greeks.
'' The late Emperor,^' his Majesty said, ^' imagined he had not
been treated handsomely, and had determined that he would
consult with no one. He should therefore follow his example,
and should inform his allies of his determination after con-
sulting with the English Government, who appeared better
able and disposed to assist him.^'f All this time the Liberals
hurled abuse on Alexander ; for, ignorant of these diplomatic
manoeuvres and correspondence, they imagined he showed a

♦ " Austria," writes Canning to Wellington, February 10th, 1826, ** never
pretended to us to look for any other result from the conferences on the
subject of Greece than to gain time, although to the Emperor Alexander
Mettemich held out expectations of an impression to be made on the
Ottoman ministry, which would bring the Porte to reason and place the
fate of Greece in the hands of the Alliance. So little pains indeed were
taken by Prince Metternich to disguise the real meaning of all these
promises in Paris last year, that the facility and almost dupery of the
lixnperor became matters of common talk, which being faithfully reported
to H.I.M. by his ambassador Pozzo di Borgo contributed more perhaps
than the subsequent failure of the steps taken by the several missions of the
Allies at Constantinople to irritate the feelings of the Emperor Alexander,
to destroy altogether his confidence in his allies, and to throw him back
upon himself in that temper of gloomy abstraction in which it is now
known, through Lord Strangford's despatch of the 17th of January, that
he had resolved upon immediate war." — Wellington Correspondence.

t The Duke was sent to St. Petersburg to attend Alexander's funeral
and obtain a promise of peace with Turkey from his successor, not, as an
eminent historian says, to obtain Bilssia's joint co-operation in obtaining
good t&rmsfoT Qrecce, He did not share the common belief that Bussia
was actively plotting insurrections ; and with respect to the Ionian Isles,
" the Bussian employes abroad think they have the same right that all
his Majesty's subjects enjoy of plotting and contriving against and revo-
lutionizing every country which they approach. I am not quite certain
that some of our Liberal diplomatic servants have not an eye to revolu-
tion in some of the countries in which they are placed. Some of them
I know have. But I believe the Bassian Grovemment have as little to
say to such schemes at present as we have."

TliQ Last Years of Alexander s Beiffn. 337

criminal indiffereuce to the sufferings of the Christiau subjects
of the Porte.

The Emperor left Verona* December 22nd^ passing through
Bohemia^ and staying for a few days at Warsaw. His note
to the provisional government of Spain reminded it that he
foretold the Spanish calamities in 1820^ from the moment
when perjured soldiers betrayed their Sovereign ; that his fears
had been justified^ anarchy having marched in the train of
revolution^ and the colonies detached themselves from the
mother-country ; properties had been despoiled^ blood has
flowed in the palace of the King, the monarch and his family
having been reduced to a state of captivity. " The Spanish
revolutionists represent the revolution of Naples and Piedmont
iis their work, and announce that their plans of overthrow
have no limit. They are stirring up strife in a neighbouring
country, and attempt to gain accomplices in the most distant
States. France is obliged to guard her own frontier. . . •
This can only be the work of a party, for Spain's traditions
are monarchical, and the loyalty of her people well known.''
The Russian ambassador was ordered to ask for his passports.

This note drew upon Alexander a torrent of invective from
jone of the Liberal orators in the House of Commons
(Brougham), compared with which Napoleon's answer to his
remonstrance on the murder of the Due d'Enghien was mild.
{The speaker ended by reminding Francis of his debts to the
English Government and his cruelties in Milan, Frederick
William of his broken pledges to his people. ^' Even the
Emperor Alexander, if the annals of Russian story may be
trusted, however pure in himself, and however happy in always

* Before his departure he saw Allen at Yerona, November 26th and
30th, for an hour or two in the evening, when, after some circumlo-
ontion, the Friend told him how afraid he was lest he shonld commit
himself with others whose views and principles were not as pure as his
own (alluding probably to Mettemich» who, says Wellington, was Alex-
ander's chief counsellor at Yerona, " though, in order to keep this place, he
is obliged to conform the government of Austria entirely to the Emperor's
views ). Alexander took it very well, but told Allen he always weighed
things in his own mind, and acted according to the best of his judgment.
The Friend spoke of the advanti^e of mental prayer, even when dis-
charging outward duties, and the Emperor said that it was his onstant
practice, and he did not know what he should do without it. '* He pointed
to a great pile of papers which^ notwithstanding the interruptions he has
Jiere, must be got through."

VOL. III. Z

338 The Last Years of Alexander b Reign,

Iiaving ageDts equally innocent^ is nevertheless descended from
an illustrious line of ancestors who have with exemplary uni-
formity^ dethroned^ imprisoned^ and slaughtered husbands^
brothers^ and children^ not that I can dream of imputing those
enormities to the parents^ or sisters, or consorts ; but it does^
happen that these exalted and near relatives have never
failed to reap the whole benefit of the atrocities, and have
ever failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. In these cir-
cumstances^ if I had had the honour of being in the confidence
of his Majesty of all the Russias^ I should have been the
last person in the world to counsel my Imperial master to
touch upon so tender a topic/^ He asked if blood had nevef
flowed in a Russian palace^ and went on for some time in
much the same strain. On March 15th^ Alexander, in a
despatch to Count Lieven on the Spanish war, desired him to
recall to the British Cabinet the fact that in similar circum-
stances the Opposition had met with eloquent adversaries in
the members of the present ministry, and Lord Liverpool had
been often of this number, and had more than once tried to
strengthen the ties of the alliance, which he now seemed to
despise. Lieven was desired to explain himself in this sense
to Mr. Canning, and to observe to him that his Imperial
Majesty was surprised to see England alarmed at the King of
France expressing the principle she has implicitly admitted in
all transactions which had France for an object, and that she
now declared a cause to be just and unassailable in Spain,
which she had sustained neither in Naples nor in Piedmont.^

The most unjust suspicion that Alexander had excited the
revolution in Greece for the sake of crushing it, prevailed in
consequence of such a line of conduct being adopted by France
in Spain ;t and there is little doubt that if Russia had

* Canning (Minister for Foreign Affairs) answered tins speech by
asking the Opposition to look back only for ten years and see that, if
England had not been leagued with despots, if despots they could be
called, ** we should never have been able to override that Colossus of
tyrants who, as it were, united all others in himself." He also observed
that England had changed in the quality and elements of her society.
England was now adopting the very policy of recognizing revolu-
tionary Governments which Pitt had blamed in Paul, and which in 1801,
1806, and 1808 would have enabled her to make an advantageous peace
with Napoleon.

t In a conversation with the French ambassador at St. Petetsburg,
September, 1823, Alexander said : " You complain of the mistrust shown

The Last Years of Alexander s Reign. 389-

advanced to the aid of Greece in 1823^ the few sparks of
sympathy for the insurgents in Western Europe would at once
have been extinguished, and three Powers at least been
arrayed against her on behalf of Turkey, while Prussia^
true to her favourite policy, would have been neutral. The
applause with which Brougham's speech was received showed
Alexander his own unpopularity in England. He alluded to
the base motives attributed to him to an Englishman, who
quoted Wilberforce's address to a missionary meeting to show
there were others who did him justice : ** I speak not of
Alexander the Great, the destroyer of man, but of the Great
Alexander, the friend of man.'' He seemed touched by it,
and changed the subject, perhaps reflecting that for the
thousands who had perished in the wars of his Greek name-
sake, his own military enterprises had cost Russia hundreds of
thousands. His campaigns had already extended over twice
the time and a* much wider extent of country than the
Macedonians, and yet they were perhaps not ended, for there
was every probability of the dilatoriness of his allies forcing
Kussia into another war.

'In 1822 died Prince Plato Zoubof, the last favourite of
Catherine, one of the murderers of Paul, and twenty-six years

towards you by the Allies. You expect that without scrutinizing your
intentions or right to advance, they will blindly subscribe to whatever you
please, and that the Alliance should be bul an auxiliary to act only as jou
shall direct. This is exacting too much. France has not yet fi^iven
Europe such guarantees as should empower the lesser to control the
greater. As you support both the risks and expense of this great under-
taking, we ought to leave you entire liberty of action. I have opposed tdl
measures that could constrain you. I have felt all that is due to your
national pride, and have taken no offence at the silence in which the name
of Alliance has been passed over." He then referred to the Prime
Minister's (M. VillMe's) feeble support to the war in Spain. " Had he
been as persuaded as M. de Ch&teaubriand that an entire victory was in-
dispensable, and that the least reverse must be ruinous to France, he
would have understood the advantage of her setting her army on foot and
her navy afloat. Your troops achieve miracles, but their numbers are
everywhere insufficient. Your blockades are inefEectual, and should you
fail, those will not be able to console themselves who would not see that
by multiplying resources and striking powerful blows they would dimioish
the» dangers of the enterprise, while securing its success and doubling the
glory of France. Since M. de Ch&teaubriand has been minister, he has
displayed an energy and ability which gives him a right to our confi-
dence and raises him to the first rank of a statesman, but he is not
seconded. This explains and justifies the mistrust you deplore," <&c.

Alexander wrote from Yosnesensk on the 28th of October (n.s.) to con-
gratulate the King of France on the success of his arms.

z 2

340 Tlte Last Years of Alexanders Reiffn.

... -

previously the most powerful man in Russia. He was buried
with great pomp at the Strelna monastery. The following
year Rostopchine returned to Russia, after addressing a long
letter to Alexander, in which he drew a striking picture of the
state of France. He painted her uneasy at her lost influence
in Europe, trying to regain it by means of revolution. "The
Frenchman is most vain and ambitious, and believes himself
a superior being, because his language is the most widely
known. He is convinced, and tries to prove, that the French
armies have never been beaten; that in 1812 the elements
destroyed the heroes who conquered Russia; that in 1813 the
battle of Leipsic would have been gained but for the desertion
of the Saxons; that in 1814 it was the treachery of the
marshals which delivered Paris to the Allies, and that the
battle of Waterloo was only lost because Napoleon had lost
his head.'' He describes the French inconsistency, shallow-
ness, and love of effect. A ninth of the population of Paris
was supported by charity, and 6000 proprietors lived in abso-
lute idleness. '' Paris is a world, a gulf, a hell for youth, an
observatory for middle life, and the Elysian Fields of old age.
There we can have everything about us, and lodged on the
Boulevards see Europe in review. So every foreigner who has
lived there becomes more or less its advocate, forgetting that
it is a true Pandora's box from which springs every evil, and
no Hope at the bottom. The Bourbons are not loved ; opinion
is against them. Good sense is contraband in France, . . •
and notwithstanding all the disorders, the crimes, and the
horrors that this infernal revolution has produced, there are
still many who dream of a republic," &c.

Alexander's influence in the French Cabinet, and afterwards
at Madrid, procured better conditions for the insurgents in
Spain, and a more equitable government than they would
otherwise have obtained. ''The instructions of the Emperor
of Russia, which I have seen and read," writes Ch&teaubriand,
October 17th, 1823, " are extremely liberal in point of the
necessity of giving new institutions to Spain. This fact will
undeceive those who imagine that Pozzo arrived from St. Peters-
burg with the cap of the Inquisition in his pocket." The same
month Alexander met the Emperor of Austria and the King
of Prussia at Czernovitz. In 1823 Czartoriski finally quitted the

The Last Years of Alexander s Beign. 841

public service^ bequeathing disturbances in the university of Yilna
to his successor^ Novossilzof. These riots broke out May 15th,
and the Prince declared them due to infection from the German
universities. Consequently Alexander prohibited the Polish
youth from entering those foreign universities supposed to be
most in fault. Another attack of fever and erysipelas pre-
vented him from making a projected journey to Tobolsk ; but
in the summer he passed a few days at Moscow^ and in the
autumn visited Warsaw and the line of military colonies to the
borders of the Crimea : over-&tigue brought on a slight return
of the malady^ and was perhaps the means of saving bis life.
A review was arranged at Bobrouisk ou the fieresina^ where
one of the colonels was a leading conspirator. He concerted
a plan for seizing Nicholas, who was to accompany him and
Diebitch, the chief of the staff; but as Alexander's illness
prevented him from attending, the project was adjourned.
Again, a similar attempt was prepared tor the spring of 1824,
when the Emperor was expected at a review at Belaia Tserkof,
where he was to occupy a small house in the middle of the
park of Alexandria belonging to the Countess Branicka. Some
officers, disguised as soldiers, agreed to penetrate into his bed-
room and strangle him in the night, when they would at once
raise the camp and march on St. Petersburg and Moscow to
excite an insurrection through the empire. But Alexander
was again kept away by illness. He had gone for a few days
to Czarco-Selo at the end of January, 1824, and taken his usual
morning walk, often extended for two or three leagues in the
park, when he was caught in a heavy shower of snow and
rain, and received a thorough chill. On his return he retired
to his room, where his dinner was brought to him, but he could
not touch it, and in the course of the evening was attacked
with fever and erysipelas, which appeared ou his leg, and
rapidly spread over his whole body to his head, so that his
brain became affected and he was delirious. His attendants
removed him in the night in a covered sledge to St. Peters-
burg, where he was attended by the principal doctors in the
capital \ and as symptoms of gangrene began to appear they
were unanimous, with the exception of WyUe, in the opinion
that it would be necessary to amputate his leg to save his
life. This doctor, with Scotch caution, reflected that if he

842 Tli,e Last Years of Alexander s Reipi,

died under the operation the Russian nation would be more
severe in their criticisms than if he perished from the disease^
and he took the responsibility of preventing amputation upon
himself. The doctors were threatened by the mob, and were
provided with passports in case the illness ended fatally ; for
as soon as it was known, the most painful excitement prevailed
throughout the city : the churches were crowded with the
people offering up prayers for his life ; and the arrival of Con-
stantine, who came to attend Michael's wedding, February 20th,
and also to confide some discoveries of the conspiracy to
Alexander, did not tend to allay the universal alarm. At last
the complaint yielded to cautery and the lancet, and, after the
medical treatment of that day, issues were established in his
leg, which began to heal. The first time he showed himself
in public nothing could exceed the demonstrations of the
popular joy ; but he lived so low, in the hope of averting a
recurrence of the complaint, keeping strictly to a vegetable
diet, and almost entirely on fruit, that his constitutional vigour
was not thoroughly re-established, and his nerves never recovered
their tone.

This year was altogether one of calamity. His only child,
the daughter of Madame Narishkine, had been educated in
Paris and at Lausanne, consideration for the feelings of the
Empress having prevented him from bringing her to Russia;
but now, though only fifteen, she was betrothed to the young
Count Shuvalov, an Imperial aide-de-camp, and when once a
wife, perhaps the Emperor hoiked he might occasionally enjoy
her society, hitherto denied him. The young, girl, who was
particularly amiable and attractive, and the very image of her
father, came to Russia for the wedding ceremony. Her health
was delicate, and her physician told Madame Narishkine that
it would never bear the climate of St. Petersburg ; but her
mother, anxious for the marriage, and hoping she would be
publicly acknowledged by the Emperor, took no heed of this
warning, and sent her, under the charge of a governess, to be
received in Russia by the family of her betrothed. One day
the Empress, walking with her lady-in-waiting in the gardens
at Czarco-Selo, unexpectedly met her in company with the
Shuvalovs. She stopped to speak to them, and keenly scru-
tinized her, never having seen her before, then giving her a

Tlie Last Years of Alexander s Reiffn. 343

kiss^ she said : '^ I cannot help loving you for the likeness you
bear ; it is impossible to mistake it/' Shortly afterwards the
young girl broke a blood-vessel and very suddenly expired.
This intelligence^ totally unexpected^ was carried to Alexander
as he was engaged with a review. He grew extremely pale^
and an expression of great pain passed over his face^ while he
jsaid, loud enough for his aide-de-camp to hear^ ^'This is
indeed the punishment of my sins/' He did not interrupt the
manoeuvres^ but finished them as if nothing had happened,
and made no allusion to the event to his wife till she ex-
pressed her deep sympathy with his sorrow. He thanked her
affectionately, but never afterwards referred to the subject.
The young Sophie Narishkine, as she was called, was buried
near the Nevskoi monastery, and all the fashionable world of
St. Petersburg followed her to the grave. Her trousseau,
which had cost 200,000 roubles, arrived the morning of her
death, and Alexander divided it amon^ his sisters. Photi
took this opportunity to try and work on the depressed and
stricken Sovereign in the interests, as he imagined, of his
Church; and he afterwards boasted he had moved him to
tears. A ukaz for the colonization of the Jews of the
.Ukraine appears to have been the result. These *people were
.accused of insulting the Christian worship on the great
festivals, and living in " idleness, roguery, and dirt.'' Possibly
their exemption from servitude and the conscription excited
some jealousy among their neighbours. They were said to
-import the plague by their trade in rags ; and on August 29th,
1824, the Emperor desired that all who were not physicians
or established merchants should return to the occupation of
their ancestors, and settle on lands assigned to them, where
they were provided with cottages, seed, cattle, and agricul-
tural implements, and relieved from all taxes for some years.
They were allowed a year to decide on conforming to the will
;of his Majesty or quitting Poland and Russia.

In March, 1824, Alexander summoned a number of the
provincial governors to St. Petersburg, to consult on an entire
reform in the organization of the administration of the Russian
empire, as he was of opiuion that a system like that of the
United States would be suitable to it. They held several
pieetings, in which these changes were discussed, and decided

344 The Last Years of Alexanders Reign.

that they ought only to be introduced gradually ; and though
the Government of Orel was fixed upon in 1824 as the first
in which an experiment should be tried^ the matter was still
imder discussion when Alexander died.

The Emperor went to the military colonies in June^ and to
Warsaw early in August^ and returned for a few weeks ta
Czarco-Selo before setting off through Moscow to Kazan^
Ekaterinberg^ and Orenburg in Russian Asia. During thi»
interval some of the troops were encamped at Krasnoe-Celo/
and he went almost daily to inspect them^ and had sufficiently
recovered from his illness to walk a league. The life at
Czarco*Selo was described by a visitor as truly monastic. The
Emperor still kept on a fruit diet^ and took his meals alone.
The Empress dined by herself^ like her lady-in-waiting/
Mdlle. Walouief^ who daily accompanied her on foot or on
a pony^ but at hours and in parts of the park where they
were not likely to meet the Emperor, for fear ot wearying
him. The Court was absolutely deserted. The ministers
came by turns, each once a week, to see Alexander, and left
immediately after their work, l^he Emperor retired to rest
at ten in the evening, and a military band played under hia
window for the sake of producing sleep, but always melan-*
choly airs of his own selection. He dreaded noise and lightj
so that the room in which he transacted his business wa»
darkened by a mass of plants trained across the window, and
a wax taper which burned all day in the apartment to seal hia
letters was carefully shaded. Only the servants, the aide-de-
camp on duty, and the lady-in-waiting, besides the Sovereigns/
occupied the Imperial residence ; the other, attendants and
officials lived in the Chinese village, where any visitors who
came from a distance and wished for an audience were alsa
lodged, and their meals sent to them from the palace. One
of these (Madame Choiscul-Gouffier), upon whom he called^
asked him for the post of aide-de-camp for her son-in-law.
He expressed his sorrow at having to refuse it, but told her
to put herself in his place and judge if he could possibly pas»
over distinguished soldiers, colonels, Poles, who counted year*
of service — *' and of what service T^ he added ; " constant war
and frequent wounds, who looked upon such a post as a
reward — in favour of a young man who had never been

The Last Years of Alexander s Reign. 345

■■

actively engaged/^ His refusals^ said this petitioner, were
always gentle, and as he left the house she followed him to
say that she and her husband should ever entertain the most
earnest wishes for his happiness. At this word he shook his
head, and »tears filled his eyes. He set out very early the
following morning. It was a cold autumnal day, but the
Empress took her usual walk, and remarked to Madame Gouffier,
whom she met in the park, that she hoped this journey would
do the Emperor good; he was always better after travelling.
He made the distance to Moscow in fortv hours, two less than
had been achieved by Peter the Great, and received an enthu-
siastic reception at every point of his route. In the desert
beyond the Volga he was entertained by a Kalmuck chief in
his felt tent, and at Ekaterinberg descended into a Siberian
mine and forged a bar of iron after the custom of the Mongul
Khans, being the first Russian Emperor who crossed the Ural
Mountains. Perm and Orenburg were the furthest points of
his journey ; but he held out hopes of visiting Tobolsk another
year if his life was prolonged. " These wide distances,'^ he
observed, " are a real drawback to the prosperity of Russia.''
Whenever he set out on such an expedition he wound up all
his afiairs and put everything in order, so that, as he said, ^^ If
I die, like Potemkin, in a ditch on the road it need cause no
confusion, and I should soon be remembered no more.''

Only two days after Alexander's return to St. Petersburg a
great misfortune overtook the city. There had been no
serious inundations since the year of his birth, till on
November 19th, a gale swept from the west, lining the British
Channel with wrecks, tore off the roofs of many houses in
St. Petersburg, and bringing up a wave from the Baltic,
threatened to drown the whole city. As the Neva rose, guns
were repeatedly fired from the fortress to warn the citizens of
their danger, and on the 23rd it was ten feet above the level
of the streets. Great exertions were made to rescue the
prisoners and the patients from the hospitals; and the Imperial
palace and other public buildings were opened by the Em-
peror's order to receive the fugitives in the rooms standing
higher than the fiood. A steamer was floated away, and
landed in a field, and a ship of the line hurled into a public
square at Cronstadt. Alexander left no steps untried to assist

346 The Last Years of Alexanders Bei//n.

his subjects* He set the example of taking a boat^ which was
followed by maDy of the nobility, and rowed about throughout
the day, to rescue sentinels and other drowning persons;
though notwithstanding their efforts 480 people perished.
The loss of property was estimated at 5,000,000/., and he
headed a subscription list for the sufferers with 50,000/. The
waters quickly subsided, and every day for weeks afterwards
he crossed the Neva, to visit in person the wretched abodes of the
.ruined poor, distributing money, and with the kindest language
soothing those who had lost their nearest relatives, particularly
in the villages of Kateriuof and Emelianof, where the drowned
lay in heaps. The religious consolation he offered them was
much tinged with self-reproach, for the morbid state of his
mind was shown in the notion that the inundation had been
jsent as a judgment upon him for the faults of his youth.

At this time there seemed a favourable opportunity for
opening a negotiation with Turkey on the subject of Greece,
the Patriarch and Greek clergy in Constantinople having been
permitted to resume their offices; but it was a temporary
fipark of conciliation, and backed, as they imagined, by British
influence, the Turks were ready the following year to overrun
the Principalities again with their savage mercenaries, and
renew their defiant attitude towards Russia. Her chargd
d'affaires was recalled in January, after only a month's resi-
dence at Constantinople, and Alexander again requested the
British Government to send a deputy to join a conference
iissembled at St. Petersburg in March, 1826, on the subject of
Becuring the permanent independence of the Morea. Austria
and Prussia sent representatives, though merely to try and avert
Auch a measure ; but England refused to have anything to do
with it, treating the insults to Russia (which Wellington
allowed were most real) as a matter to be easily settled by
the English envoy at the Porte. '' I have very little doubt,'^
writes Canning to Wellington, January 21st, 1825, '* that the
Emperor of Russia's anger will pass away; but I heai* his
Imperial Majesty's mind has received a considerable shock
from the various successive misfortunes of the last few months^
the death of his daughter, of a favourite aide-de-camp (Ouvarov),
and the inundation, and that he is in a state of unusual irrita*
iion." "I think it unfortunate," the Duke answered, January

The Last Yean of Alexander s Ueign. 347

58rd, *' that you had not taken your line before you should
receive this Russian message^ which is moderate enough in
manner and expression, although the resolution itself is
strong. Count Lieven would be disposed to soften it as
much as possible, but I don^t think he can, as the harsh part
-of the communication is the resolution that we shall have
nothing to say to any questions between the Emperor and the
"Turks or the Greeks/^*

Alexander was present at the f^te of January 13th in St.
Petersburg,t where it was reported an attempt was to be
made to assassinate him, but he would permit no precautions
to be taken, and looked more cheerful than usual, as was
observed to be the case when his life was in danger. Twenty-
five thousand tickets were distributed, and the people roamed
at pleasure through the drawing-rooms of the Winter Palace,
till even the Emperor was frequently so much crowded,
that in protecting one of the Princesses whom he was con-
.ducting down the room, he trod on a merchant's foot. He
expressed his regret, and added, '' You see how we are
pressed ; you may do the same by me directly, but I shall
not complain of it.'^ '^ Sire,'' said the merchant, much pleased,
"you have done me no wrong, on tike contrary,^' Refresh-
ments were served to aU the guests ; and in the supper-room,
where 600 were seated, the Emperor walked up and down,
talking to each of the ladies in turn in a lively manner ;
etiquette forbade them to rise, and the orchestra played the
whole time.

The conference at St. Petersburg on the Greeks ended as
unsatisfactorily as before. The note sent by Miniacky in
December, 1824), demanding the release of the Sen^ian
deputies, and the evacuation of the Principalities, with the
appointment of a Hospodar, according to treaties, had never

* Wellington Correspondence,
t " The first day of tlie year 1817 saw the return of the ordinary popular
fSte ; an evening ball at the Winter Palace, and supper at the Hermi-
tage. This assembly is unique in Europe. All classes are mintcled in
the palace of the Sovereign— the peasant elbows the Prince, and both
approach their master. 'Die people take an esrtreme pleasure in it, and
any one must know little of the Emperor not to be sure that he takes
pleasure in their pleasure. A Cashmere merchant and Czem^ George
(a Servian chief) were at the ball. He killed his father, killed his
brother, and hung him with his own hands. The Mussulman stove
produces these strange plants in Europe." — De Maistre.

348 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign.

been answered ; and in October^ 1825, he addressed an olti'
matum from Taganrog, six weeks before his death, inquiring
the reason of his last note having received no reply, and
recapitulating his demands, to which were added those he
mentioned at the treaty of Verona. He also addressed a
private note to Prince Lieven and Pozzo di Borgo, in London
and Paris, desiring them to ascertain if the AVestern Powers
were likely to league against Russia in case of a w^ar
between Russia and the Porte. The answers did not arrive
till after his death, and their opinion was, if he declared
war it should be soon. He could have summoned nearly a
million of men to his standai*d; the fleet was increased to
seventy ships of the line and eighteen frigates. A commercial
panic in 1821 had subsided, and the extraordinary taxes and
loans for the French war had been paid off since 1822 ; the
budget showed a considerable reduction on the side of
expenditure, and in spite of his liberality, which according to
Marmont approached prodigality,* he left a treasure of
4,000,000/. from his private revenues. Was this to be devoted
to the emancipation of the serfs, or to fulfil the desire of his
subjects in the conquest of Constantinople, and at the same time
the deliverance of Greece ? He fairly avowed to the French
ambassador, that unless his Alliesf came forward effectually,
he must look to his own resources, and there is little doubt
that he had resolved to march in the spring on Constantinople,
^' A crisis,^' writes Wellington, regarding it from the English
point of view, "had arrived in this long pending question,
even before Alexander's death, which crisis, if it was not
precipitated, was at least not prevented by the system of
conferences and joint interpositions. Nesselrode spoke in
terms of bitterness and contempt of Metternich^s worn-
out policy. He declared further, that Alexander had never

* " The Emperor Alexander may be the object of various criticisms ;
but oue quality, which no one disputes, is a boundless kindness of heart.
His active benevolence, his desire to do good, showed itself every day
and on every occasion. It was allied, perhaps, to an uneasy conscience,
and to the desire of a tender soul to find some means of blessing.
Generous habits resulted from it," &c. " There was not a family in St.
Petersburg who were not under obligations to him." — Marmont, 1826.

t Wellington says : ** Alexander complained with great reason ;" and
no answer had as yet arrived when Nicholas ascended the throne. The
Turkish army was a terror to the inhabitants of the Principalities.

The Last Years of Alexander's Reiyn. 349

relied on France for any honest or useful assistance. • . .
The Turks are ... . aware that the patience of the Emperor
of Russia had been at length wearied out^ and that the com-
meucement of the war has only been intercepted by that
^event which has devolved his power and his projects into
younger hands.^'

M. de la Perronays wrote on March 26th, 1825, to Ch&teau->
briand, that the Emperor perceived by degrees '^all those
circumstances develop which his penetration had foreseen.
His natural enemies, England and Austria, commit errors,
displaying weakness and want of skill. All parties have
believed themselves able to attach this Prince to their respective
interests. . . . The Bonapartists incessantly pester him in
favour of young Napoleon, another party in favour of the
Prince of Orange, or of Bcauharnais, and another again in
favour of the Grand Duke Nicholas.'^

This year Alexander sent surveyors and engineers to map out
the districts of the Oxus and Ural, he founded a school for
mechanics in Moscow, and might well look with satisfaction at
the flourishing state of education and commerce in his empire.
'* The cares taken by Alexander for the education of youth
can hardly be conceived,'^ writes Marmont ; and in 1824 he
bought a palace from one of his nobles, to establish a coUege
for the reception of cadets while they were waiting for com-
missions, to prevent them from wasting their time and getting
into mischief. He caused several canals to be dug before
the inundation, to drain St. Petersburg, and raised and planted
the islands of Yelagin and Kameni Ostrov. In 1825 fresh
efforts were made to raise the foundation of the city, and a
commission was appointed to devise some means of preventing
future floods. Its granite quays, its footpaths, the Admiralty^
and many public buildings were due to him, and in 1824 he
completed the new Michael Palace for his youngest brother.
Early in 1825 he spent more time than usual in St. Peters-
burg) and took his daily walk, generally in plain clothes, along
the quays, but in April he went to Warsaw for two months. On
May 13th he opened the Polish Diet with a speech, and closed
it again, after a most orderly session, in which all the laws pro-
posed by the ministry were accepted. In Warsaw he received
fresh information of the existence of the conspiracy, and even

850 The Last Years of Alexander e Reign.

i

the names of some of the leaders, including Pestal. It has been
reported, that in view of this crisis^ and of this indisputable fact
that in the army Constantine was more popular than Nicholas,
also that Nicholas^ wife seemed unable to bear the Russian
\ climate^ he pressed his brother to take the throne in case of it»
soon becoming vacant, and left him a copy of a constitution by
which he was to govern the country. On June 25th he
returned to St. Petersburg, and visited the hospitals at Cron-
stadt, where he ordered several improvements.* He then
made a tour of inspection through the military colonies..
Constantine and his wife went to Carlsbad, and Alexander's
two sisters and their husbands came to Russia. He men-
tioned to the Prince of Orange, that as soon as he had a
prospect of bequeathing to his successor a peaceable throne,
he meant to resign it, and retire to some obscure comer of
his dominions. The Prince, who was much attached to him,
was distressed by such an idea. He tried to show, first in
word-s, and afterwards in writing, that it would be a step fatal
to Russia, and certainly misconstrued in Europe. Moreover,
had he a right to throw oflf his responsibility ? It would Ixr
attributed to a fear of assassination or a love of inglorious
ease. Alexander listened courteously, but was not convinced.
A higher Will than his own was to decide it.

As the following winter was expected to bring Russia and
Turkey into collision, the Emperor planned a tour in the
Crimea and to the fortifications on the Pruth for the autumn.
The Empress's health became worse, and her physicians,
attributing her disorder to water on the chest, which had
carried oflF several members of her family, advised her to try
the effect of a warmer climate. Her beauty had long com-
pletely disappeared, and her high colour showed the pressure
on her lungs, which was afterwards ascertained to arise from
disease of the heart. A vague uneasiness seemed to possess^
her with regard to her husband, and instead of going to
Baden or Italy, she begged to be allowed to remain near him,
and to accompany him to the south of Russia. He was

• This inspection was a proof of Alexander's careful supervision of
the public institutions. An English work had lately appeared praising
the management of the Russian hospitals with the exception oi that of
Cronstadt ; and he immediately paid it an unexpected visit to ascertain
the truth of this criticism, and adopt a remedy.

i

The Last Years of Alexander s Reign, 351

pleased by the request^ and made inquiries to find the most
salubrious spot for her residence. A malaria fever had pre*
vailed during all the summer in Odessa and the Crimea^ so-
Taganrog, which the Emperor had once visited^ was preferred,
and there he decided to establish their head-quarters, and
make his journeys of inspection from it. The Empress talked
of returning in January^ but he did not as usual fix the day,
or even the month. He saw one minister after another^ and
wound up everything as if for a prolonged absence^ but that
was his habit. Prince Galitzin was assisting him to arrange
some of his papers in his private room, and after expressing a
confident hope that he would return in perfect health, observed
how inconvenient it would be if anything happened to him
while the act of succession remained secret. Alexander
seemed struck with the remark, but after a few minutes said
the matter must be left in the hands of Providence. On hi»
f(6te-day he attended a service at the monastery of St. Alex-
ander j Nicholas accompanied him. '^ The Emperor was
gloomy, but nevertheless particularly kind and affectionate to-
his brother,'' and among other things told him he meant to
give him an estate near Peterhof. The same day they met
for the last time at dinner, with their brother Michael. " It
was here/' to quote Nicholas's own words, " that he bade
farewell to him for whom he ever cherished a sentiment of the
deepest and most afiectionate gratitude, and also to the
Empress Elizabeth."*

Alexander ordered a service for the dead to be celebrated at
the monastery of St. Alexander very early on the 13th, with
directions that it should not be mentioned in the public papers,
and he attended it at four a.m., when it was still dark, entirely
alone. He visited the cell of a celebrated hermit monk, who
had lately arrived there ; and then rejoining his carriage, drove
on to "Czarco-Selo, where he was met by his suite, and wished
his mother and sisters good-bye. His coachman aftenvards^
said he stopped his carriage on a rising ground outside St.
Petersburg, and took a long look in the direction of the cita-
del, and these circumstances, added to his parting from his
family being unusually affectionate and gloomy, made many
think he had a presentiment of his approaching end. He-

* Accession of Nicholas I.

352 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign.

'went on straight to Taganrog, ivhere he arrived at ten p.m. on
September 25th^ having travelled 150 versts every day. He
inspected several public establishments on his road, among
others a lunatic asylum ; for he always took particular interest
in this form of human suffering, and paid annually 100,000
roubles towards the support of the "hospital for aflSicted souls,''
as it is called, in St. Petersburg. He spoke to several of the
patients, among others to a soldier, whose face he remembered
as formerly in the ranks of his regiment. He asked the man
if he recollected him, "when the lunatic answered in a stento-
rian voice, " Is it likely that I shoidd forget the Prince who
had his own father murdered ?" The Emperor turned deadly
pale, but calmly walked on, and addressed a few words to each
of the other patients. At Taganrog, the day after he arrived,
he went over the Lazaretto and Government establishments,
and selected the Empress's abode. On the 29th the Hetman
of the Cossacks arrived, and dined with him ; and the Empress,
who had left St. Petersburg the day after her husband, but
travelled slowly, appeared October 6th, the Emperor having
met her at the last stage. Her health and spiiits quickly im-
proved in a genial climate, and she admired the town and the
distant view of the Caucasus. She wrote to her own family
that she had never in her life been so happy ; but she was
destined to enjoy her husband's companionship for only three
weeks, exclusive of the days she passed by the side of his
death-bed. In those three weeks he sent his ultimatum to
Turkey, and gave orders for the provisioning of 100,000 men
assembling on the shores of the Pruth. He found time to
superintend the formation of a public garden, and walked out
all weathers, though from the rain and the light soil he was
often up to his ankles in mud, and proposed a plan for deepen-
ing the harbour by means of steam-power. Being unaccus-
tomed to the neighbourhood of a Court, the inhabitants of
Taganrog amused themselves with minute inquiries as to the
habits of the Imperial pair. The Emperor rose very early,
breakfasted on tea and a small piece of dry bread, dined at
two, and drove out with the Empress in the afternoon. A
Frenchman returning from the Caucasus frequently " met him
in the streets, where he walked about in the exclusive com-
pany of the Empress. His face showed care and sorrow, but

Tlie Last Years of Alexander s Reiffn. 353

the remembrance of these walks, and the acts of benevolence
resulting from them, is the most touching/^ he writes, " of my
recollections in Russia. One morning the Emperor w^eut to
see an old bed-ridden widow, and after addressing to her some
words of hope and comfort, took his leave and left on the table
500 roubles/'* On October 23rd he drove to the capital of
the Don Cossacks, and mounted on a splendid horse, attired in
their picturesque uniform, made his entry into the town. He
attended a ball, and danced a polonaise with the wives of the
principal Cossacks. After visiting all the public establishments,
and receiving the clergy and officials for miles round, he kept
his mother's birthday by a service in the Cathedral, and re-
turned through Azov to Taganrog on the 27th.

He had intended to visit Astrakhan, but was requested by
Count Voronzov, who met him at Taganrog, to come first to the
Crimea to attract the loyalty of his Mahometan subjects, in
case of a war with Turkey. t He set off, November 1st, by
Mariopol, Perekop, Sympheropol, Batchi-Serai, and Eupatoria,
and arranged to traverse 900 miles in seventeen days. A
thousand soldiers had been employed the last year in making
a high road through the Crimea, and though they had suffered
little from fever, it had since prevailed. Many thought it
was the same which thirty-four years before decimated Po-
temkin's victorious armies, and that it had been revived by
turning up the ground where their corpses were hurriedly laid.
The Emperor seemed impatient to accomplish his journey. On
the 5th he arrived at Sympheropol, and the next morning
attended a service in the Cathedral, then rode on horseback
thirty-five miles over a mountainous country to Yoursouf, where
lie arrived at four p.m. He was received by Count Voronzov,
the Governor of South Russia, his aides-de-camp and others
standing in a line while he dismounted. One of them (an
English doctor) describes him as apparently in the prime
and vigour of life. The Tartars crowded to see him on his road

• M. Fayot, Professor at Alexander Lyceum.
t Constantine, writing to La Harpe in 1828, says, " I own that, while
pitying the Greeks, I do not think their canse just, and I cannot approve
of the emancipation of a people for revolt against one's neighbour.
Justice will always remain justice. It is immovable. The Greeks are a
people conquered by the right of arms, and recognised as belonging to
the Turks by treaties." His objection to the war is believed to have
influenced Nicholas in delaying it after Alexander's death.

VOL. 111. A A

354 The Last Years of Alexander's Beign.

from Yoursouf to Aloupka^ the following day ; and he distri-
buted money liberally to the poor. He visited some vineyards
belonging to the Crown^ and walked a great deal^ going on foot
to see the colony of the Princess Galitzin^ though he was told
fever prevailed in it ; and also to look at Orianda^ which he
had just bought. There a Tartar woman appealed to him for
redress, having been flogged and ill treated^ contrary to his own
law. The offending superintendent of police threw himself on
his knees before the Emperor to implore pardon^ but Alexander
ordered him to be arrested, and severely told him it was an
eternal disgrace to ill use a female, especially in her circum-
stances. The same evening he dined with Yoronzov^ Diebiteh,
his own doctor, Dr. Lee, and one or two officers. He made a
frugal repast, and drank very little wine. He talked chiefly to
Voronzov, who sat next to him, inquiring about the prosperity
of the merchants at Theodosia, and other local topics. The
conversation fell on natural history, and Dr. Wylie reminded
the Emperor of a scorpion found in his bed at Verona. He
seemed pleased with Orianda, and to the surprise of his audi-
tors said, '^ When I send in my resignation I mean to establish
myself there.^^ He walked out after dinner, and a Mahometan
eflendi presented a petition to him. He retired early to rest
in the Tartar cottage prepared for his reception ; his aides-de-
camp being lodged in cottages near. A courier arrived at
midnight, and the Emperor rose to open his despatches^ which
were very important, as they gave all the particulars of the
intended insurrection,* and the names of the leaders. He
sent for Diebitch, who found him walking rapidly backwards and
forwards in his room^ evidently much disturbed. The general
spent two hours with him, acting as his secretary, while he
wrote himself to Constantine at Warsaw, and to Nicholas at
St. Petersburg, and sent off these letters and other despatches
by couriers in the course of the night. He came down early
the next morning, apparently calm and in good humour, and
talked for some little time in the garden with Yoronzov^s phy-
sician on the Empress's health. He walked about almost all
the morning, and at noon set off in pouring rain, on horse-

* " It is indeed stated," says WeUinffton, " that the impression this
made upon his mind was the cause of nis death, . . . and his nerves
were bo much afFected that his medical attendants could not prevail upon
him to take medicine, or to feel confident in any chance of recovery.

The Last Years of Alexander^ Ueign, 355

back^ to Baidar, by a difficult pass over the mountains^ between
3000 and 4000 feet high ; after a hard ride of forty versts, he
arrived greatly tired^ and in a profuse perspiration^ at his des-
tination, and rather irritated at beiug provided with a very
fidgety horse. Without tasting food he entered his carriage
at Baidar, and proceeded to Balaklava ; but mounted his horse
again to review a regiment, and then rode, entirely alone, to
the Monastery of St. George, across a ridge for several miles
much exposed to the east wind. He stayed there two hours, it
was believed to consult the Archimandrite on the propriety of
allowing the Lutherans, who had petitioned for a chapel at
Sympheropol, to restore a ruined Greek church for that pur-
pose. He also granted a piece of land to the Roman Catholic
inhabitants for a place of worship.

From the monastery, situated on a cliff overhanging the sea,
the Emperor followed his suite to Sevastopol, arriving there
at 8.30 P.M. \ and went Sitraight to a church for a short
service ; also reviewing the Marines by torchlight. Dinner
was prepared at his quarters, but he ate nothing, and transacted
buniness with Diebitch. The next morning (November 9th) he
saw a ship launched from the same docks blown up by the
English on quitting the Crimea in 1856, and visited the military
hospital, about three versts from the town. On his return he
held a levee, and then went in a boat to see a ship of war,
and crossed the harbour to go through the Marine hospital
and the barracks. He gave a State dinner in the evening to
his generals, and afterwards worked later than usual with Die-
bitch ; but he could not sleep all night, owing to the painful
impression made on him by the wretched appearance of an
officer under arrest, who threw himself at his feet in the bar-
racks to ask for pardon. The following day he crossed the
harbour again to examine the great fort of Constantine, where
he watched some practice with red-hot shot, and the citadel ;
and afterwards set off in an open carriage to Batchi-Serai.
On the way, contrary to his usual custom, he was observed to
be asleep, though very uneasily, and was troubled with an
obstinate cough. He spent the evening alone, and the next day
rode to the Jewish fortress of Tchoufiit Kale, and visited several
of the synagogues ; and afterwards a Greek monastery, but
the ascent to it was steep, and as he walked up to it he

A a2

356 Tlic Last Years of Alexanders Beiffn.

became so faint he was obliged to rest on the road. He returned
to Batchi-Serai, where some of the Mahometan chiefs^ in-
cluding two muftis, dined with him ; and in the evening he
went incognito in the Tartar dress to a service in one of their
mosques. He heard of the death of his wife^s brother-in-law,
the King of Bavaria, and sending for Wylie consulted him
about the Empress, and regretted she should have received the
sad news in his absence. He asked an official if he was ac-
quainted with Colonel Pestal. " Sire,^^ said the officer, " he
is my near relation.^' The Emperor answered, he believed him
to conceal treacherous designs under the garb of loyalty, and
that he had kept his eye on him for a long time. From Batchi-
Serai he went to Eupatoria, and visited the Quarantine and
other public establishments. He talked for some time to the
captain of a Turkish vessel who had not yet performed qua-
rantine, though Wylie told him he was very imprudent. That
night was passed near Perekop, where he visited the hospitals,
and the following evening between the Isthmus and Orekof.
Here his valet, who had been with him twenty, seven years, told
Wylie he was sure the Emperor was ill, and asked if he had re-
marked his extreme pallor. Wylie had not observed it, but the
next day he was driving with Diebitch to Mariopol, when he was
attacked with violent shiverings and every symptom of ague,
though as the place where they rested for the night offered
miserable accommodation, the doctor treated him with merely
a glass of hot punch, and advised they should push on as fast
as possible to Taganrog. He was so chilly in his carriage that
he mounted a horse and rode till he could no longer hold him-
self in the saddle. He had eaten scarcely anything for three
days and nights, and slept very little, when on the evening of
the 17th he reached his destination. In answer to Volkonski's
inquiries, Alexander said he had felt a touch of the Crimean
fever hanging about him ever since he left Batchi- Serai ; and
became worse while visiting the hospital at Perekop, but he
thought it might mend his constitution. Volkonski answered,
he ought to take more care than he did of his precious health,
and not treat it with the same carelessness he had done at
twenty years of age.

The next day (November 18th) the Emperor seemed
worse, and wrote to his mother, telling her he had a feverish

Tlie Last Years of Alexander a Rei^n. 357

attack, which he thought would pass off. To his doctor he
almost regretted the strength of his constitution, saying rather
Irritably, that however ill he was he always recovered, and
supposed it would be ever the same. He took the medicines
Wylie prescribed, and they relieved the paroxysms of fever and
the- pains he felt in his head and limbs ; but he obstinately
refused to take any more, and his attendants were convinced
that he really did not wish to live. '^ Sleep, quiet, and cold
water would do more for me than any medicine,^' he said ;
but after the mode of treating fevers then in vogue, Wylie
objected to give him cold water, and he refused to drink
anything else. It was afterwards found he had a much in-
flamed sore throat, which made swallowing difficult, but he
did not mention this symptom. He transacted business the
day after his arrival at Taganrog, and rose as usual, spend-
ing a few hours in the evening with the Empress, who on
the 21 at wrote to her sister-in-law, the wife of Michael, re-
questing her to inform the Empress-mother that Alexander
was better, for she should not write herself lest she should
think his disorder more serious than it was. More despatches
arrived on the 19th, and the Emperor after reading them sent
orders for the arrest of Pestal and the other leaders of the
conspiracy at Moscow. It appeared they had resolved to begin
a political movement on the following March 24th, when
every member of the Imperial family was accustomed to
attend a service in the chapel of the fortress of St. Peters-
burg for the repose of Paulas soul. They would surround the
fortress and shut up the whole family in its prisons, then
raise the population and deal with their Princes as circum-
stances pointed out. The ingratitude of Glinka and others
like him, who had received their education and especial
favour at the Emperor*s hands, seemed to affect him pain-
fully. " But what else could I expect ? it is a just retribu-
tion,'' he exclaimed to himself.* " Almighty God, may thy

* He had long been in the habit of thinking aloud, from not hearing
his own voice. This funeral service is described by Holman. At the
door of the church the priests met the Imperial family, and formed a
procession to Paul's tomb, followed by the Emperor between the two
Empresses, the Grand Dukes and their wives in the rear. The Empress-
Dowager every year threw herself on the ground before her husband's
coffin, making every demonstration of the deepest affliction while the
prayers were being chanted; and when she rosej each member of the

358 Tlie Last Tears of Alexander s Beign.

judgments fall on me alone^ and not on my people/' He
had a restless night, and was very much worse the following
day. His head was burning, and there was a marked change
in his countenance. Wylie called in the Empress's physi-
cian. Dr. StofiFrogen, and both advised he should be bled ; but
he would not hear of it, saying bleeding always shook his
nerves, and they were already in a most disordered state.
'' I have little faith in medical treatment/' he said ; " my
malady is beyond your skill." He submitted to a large
blister on his head and mustard plasters on his back, and
on the 20th made an effort to write to Constantine. The
next day he told Volkonski to write to his brother and to
the Empress-Dowager, and inform them his illuess was dan-
gerous, though the doctors thought him slightly better. They
complained he did everything to aggravate the disorder, re-
jecting even common comforts, getting up regularly in the morn-
ing till the 2 1st, receiving General de Witte who brought
most disquieting news, and dictating despatches ; and though
from the 22nd he hardly spoke a word when he was sensi-
ble, he talked incessantly whenever he was delirious, which
became frequent. Throughout his illness his pulse was seldom
as low as 90, and often 125, but was always extremely small
and feeble; and some were of opinion that under these cir-
cumstances his strength should have been sustained, and not
treated with lowering remedies.

On the 22nd he had a long fainting fit, but on the next
day seemed better, though when he tried to stand he fainted
again. On the • 24th he again revived, and the doctors
pressed leeches upon him, but he would not hear of them ;
however, as he afterwards apologized for his impatience, and
thanked his doctors for their attention : the advice was re-
newed the next day, and again rejected, though he allowed his
doctors to use blisters, issues, and other external applications.
He seemed when conscious to be pre- occupied with uneasy
thoughts, and it was not without cause. A war with Turkey*
was impending, probably also with Austria, and perhaps with

family in turn came forward and prostrated himself in prayer for a few
moments before the coffin, all dressed in deep mourning.

* Count Bemstorff told Wellington Alexander would certainly have
declared war in the spring.

like Last Years of Alexander s Reign. 359

the re«t of Europe. His army^ through which he had hoped
gradually to educate and civilize the lower classes, was mis-
guided by treacherous oflBcers, and the intended tool for over-
turning the State. Other remembrances still more personally
painful crowded upon him^ to judge from his utterances
when he was delirious, and the words Pahlen^ Zoubof, and
the Emperor mingled with Austerlitz, Moscow, Friedland;
and words of command were constantly on his lips. '^ It
was a horrible act/' he said, fixing his eyes on Wylie ; " he
was not even permitted the prayer that the dying owes his
Maker.'' And again, alluding to the conspiracy, he said he
had ever laboured with no other object than to secure his
people's glory and happiness. On the 26th erysipelas ap-
peared on his leg, which seemed to relieve his head. He
observed, without the slightest tone of regret, that he should die
like his sister Catherine (of apoplexy brought on by the com-
plaint being checked), and even sat up and shaved himself
and wrote a short letter, but at twelve became worse, and
Wylie told the Empress he was in great danger. Volkouski
suggested a confessor ought to be summoned ; on which the
Empress asked Wylie to tell the Emperor of his condition,
and inquire if he did not wish for the consolations of reli-
gion. Wylie did so. '' Then you really think I am dying y
said the Emperor. The doctor replied, he refused to follow
his prescriptions, and he must tell him now he had not a
moment to lose. Alexander pressed his hand, and said it
was the best news he had heard for many years ; but he was
in such a high fever that Wylie was afraid of exciting him too
much, and advised the priest should be postponed to the
next day. Later in the evening he had a long fainting fit,
and was so ill in the night that the Empress was called up
at four P.M., and a confessor, the Archimandrite Fedotof, was
summoned to his bedside. The Emperor raised himself with
difficulty, and asked to be left alone with the priest, whom
he desired to sit down by him, and to treat him in all re-
spects as the most ordinary individual. The interview was
short, but the confessor said he had never seen more Chris-
tian humility, or a dying man more thoroughly prepared.
The Empress was called to join in the Holy Communion,
and then, instructed by the physician, the priest told the Em-

360 Tlie Last Years of Alexander's Ueign,

peror this service would be useless to him, for his death must
be regarded by the Almighty as suicide if he persisted in re-
fusing to try and avert it. He seemed struck by this, and
calling Wylie, told hira to do what he pleased. He would dbject
to nothing. To the Empress he said he had never felt greater
happiness, and thanked her warmly for her care. The physician
at once put thirty leeches* on his temples. They took two hours
to bite, and he seemed much exhausted when they were taken
off. He requested the Empress to go and take some rest,
and then said to Wylie, '^ if I could but sleep ; I feel as if
sleep would do me good. Ah, my friend, I think you are
deceived as to the nature of my illness \ it is my nerves that
need a cure.^^ He seemed extremely agitated, and sensitive
to sound, and very shortly became violently delirious, and
did not even recognize his doctors when they approached
his bed. Early in the morning he was seized with nervous
convulsions, and continued alternately convulsed and uncon-
scious throughout the day. During the night he was again
delirious, trying to sit up, and as often fainting away, till
his attendants thought every moment would be his last; but
at six A.M. strong mustard plasters were applied, which re-
stored his faculties. He thanked those about him for their
services, and desired Volkonski not to quit the Empress
after his death till he had brought her safely back to St.
Petersburg, and he also spoke to her in a stronger voice.
She wrote to his mother that " there was a very decided amend-
ment in the state of the Emperor, who is an angel of good-
ness in the midst of his sufferings. He is however weak in
the extreme. Dear mother, pray with us and 50,000,000 of
men, that God may be pleased to grant his recovery.'' All
hope however vanished when he was unable to swallow, and
in the course of the day he was again seized with convul-
sions. On the morning of the 30th, he said, " Ah, le beau
jour/' as the sun began to stream in through the window,
ths curtains having been pushed aside. They were the last
words he uttered, but shortly afterwards he seemed distressed
with violent pain, and was again convulsed throughout the

* No English doctor would now prescribe bleeding for intermittent
fever.

I%€ Last Years of Alexanders Beign. 361

clay. Towards evening he fell into a state of lethargy, though
strong external applications restored him to apparent con«
«ciousness, and a blister relieved his breathing, which was much
oppressed. On the morning of December Ist he opened his
eyes «nd pressed the hand of his wife, who had hardly quitted
the room for five minutes during the last thirty hours : he
made « great effort, though ineffectually, to speak, and at 10.40
expired on a «ofa in the presence of the Empress, Wylie,
Volkonski, and Diebitch.

A post-mortem .examination showed the appearances in
the liver and spleen — the one congested, the other softened —
common to those who have died of the intermittent bilious or
gastric fever of the Crimea. Several ounces of water were
found in the ventricles of the brain, where the veins and
arteries were gorged with blood. There was an old adhesion
arising from inflammation of the brain at some remote
period, between the membranes called dura mater and pia
mater ; and both adhered to the skull at the back of the head,
where Alexander had always felt pain when he had a headache.
The heart and lungs were sound, but too vascular. The body
was embalmed ; but the face became so quickly discoloured
that it was obliged to be covered when it lay in State. The
Empress seemed inconsolable. She wrote to her mother-in-
law, " Our angel has gone to Heaven, and I linger still on
earth. Who would have thought that I, in my weak state of
health, could ever have survived him ? Do not abandon me,
dear mother, for I am absolutely alone in this world of grief.
Our dear deceased has resumed his look of benevolence ; his
smile proves to me he is happy, and that he gazes on brighter
objects than exist here. My only consolation under this
irreparable loss is that I shall not survive him. I hope soon
to be reunited to him.^'

No one ever recollected such a profound and universal
feeling of gloom as pervaded St. Petersburg when a courier
brought the news that the Emperor was no more. It arrived
while the Imperial family were attending a thanksgiving
service for the favourable account previously received. It was
changed into a requiem for the repose of his soul ; and even
one of the conspirators records the tears that rolled down the

362 The Last Years of Alexander s Reign.

cheeks of the officers who proclaimed the accession of a new
monarch. For three days the shops were all voluntarily
closed \ and during that time not a single person was arrested
for drunkenness or any other offence — an unprecedented
circumstance in the annals of the city. Innumerable crowds
filled the churches ; and not a face showed any expression but
anxiety and mourning. The silence was also remarkable that
prevailed in the streets. The newspapers, pulpits^ and learned
professors poured forth eulogiums to the memory of their
beloved monarch. Many were so much affected by the
intelligence as to be attacked by real illness : one merchant
in Moscow, of eccentric and retired habits, who had been
visited more than once by the Sovereign to thank him in
person for his numerous charities, an hour after he received
the news fell down dead.

The uncertainty as to the succession of Nicholas belongs
to his history rather than to Alexander's. Aratchaief was
not then in St. Petersburg. He had placed a female serf
over his establishment, and she more than equalled her master
in severity. One morning she was assassinated, and no one
would bring forward the murderer. Aratchaief seems on this
occasion to have been almost insane. For five days and
nights he neither ate, slept, nor shaved, but sat staring with a
blood-stained handkerchief, which had been tied over his
housekeeper's face, bound round his head, and for several
weeks seemed to forget everything else. This happened just
after Alexander went to Taganrog, whence the Emperor wrote
to Photi, telling him he had heard Aratchaief was a prey to
despair, and that the Archimandrite alone could prevent the
fatal consequences to be apprehended from it : " you whose
words, full of holy unction, and whose unblemished life have
recalled so many stray sheep to the fold." He ended by
requesting Photi to summon Aratchaief to his side, to speak to
him in the name of religion, and to strengthen his faith.
" Exhort him to take care of himself for the sake of his
country,'' &c. Photi accordingly brought Aratchaief away
from his solitude to the monastery, where he stayed several
weeks. But his desire for vengeance did not yield to religion ;
and immediately he heard of Alexander's death, instead of

Tlie Last Tears of Alexander a Bei^n. 363

coming forward to support the claims of Nicholas^ he rushed
off to his estate^ anxious to satisfy his revenge during the
interregnum^ lest a general amnesty should be proclaimed and
his victims escape. In Germany he had seen a criminal
broken on the wheel, where it was still used ; and he is said
to have even employed this illegal punishment. A hasty trial
was gone through, in which twenty- one serfs were convicted
as accessories to the murder, and condemned to be flogged ;
among them, contrary to law, a woman who had an infant at
the breast. In the mean time Nicholas ascended the throne ;
and though the trial was kept secret for several months, it
was brought to his knowledge through the relatives of this
woman ; and, to the joy of all Russia, Aratchaief was de-
prived of his offices. From that time he lived quietly on his
estates, where he died in 1834, and in his last years became a
mild and benevolent landlord ; seeking, he said, to prepare
himself by religious exercises to join " the beloved object of
his loyal devotion ;'' and in his dying moments he begged to
be turned so that he might face a portrait of Alexander,
which hung near his bed. He caused a clock to be con-
structed at great cost in Paris, which was the principal
ornament in his room. It was surmounted by Alexander's
bust, and struck only once a day — at the hour in which the
Emperor died, when it played the beautiful air, " Peace amid
the blessed.^' Paul's bust was also a prominent object in his
apartment. Seldom indeed has any sovereign possessed a
more devoted or unpopular servant. He bequeathed his
entire fortune Ho various public institutions, with the exception
of a sum of money left to accumulate in the charge of the
Academy of St. Petersburg, to found a prize for the most
complete biography of Alexander I.

Paul's other favourite, Rostopchine, displayed a very
different feeling on the death of Paul's successor, whom he
survived just two months. The Count was at Moscow,
suffering from water on the chest, and too ill to leave his house
to take the oath of allegiance to Nicholas. " By a singular
coincidence," wrote the implacable old man, " Alexander has
died at Taganrog — a town used in the last century as a place of
exile for criminals ; and it is certain that his corpse must have

/^w'

>

864 The Last Years of Alexander s IReign,

been embalmed by Wylie, his surgeon, the same who was one
of Paul's assassins, and who cut his carotid artery after he
was strangled/'

Count Pahlen, the prime mover in that event, also died less
than three months after Alexander. Panine and Benningsen
followed the same year, and Zaiconzek, the Viceroy of Poland,
died in June, 1826, when Constantine demanded the vacant
office for himself, with the promise that he would resign it
when he reached the age of fifty-seven. Romanzov and
Karamzin, the literai'v ornaments of Alexander's Court, died
in January and June, 1826, Alexander Narishkine in Feb-
niary. Count Gregory Orlof in June, Miloradovitz was shot
in the insurrection of December 1825, and the Romaa
Catholic Primate closed the mortuary column for the same
twelvemonth, which included a most unusual number of
celebrated men.

Constantine concealed the fact of Alexander's dangerous
illness in Warsaw even from Michael, who was staying with
him, though it was observed that for several days he looked
anxious and depressed, and the news of his death came like a
thunderclap upon the whole city, who had seen him only the
previous June in good health.

In Prussia, the King's natural sorrow at the death of a
jriend seven years his junior was mitigated by the elevation of
y . his daughter to the throne. But a religious ceremony was

-- -' performed in his presence, and a funeral panegyric pronounced.

^^^ * A few days later a second was put forth from the pulpits in

Berlin : " What a brilliant example, but now hidden from the
world, have we before us — a great and powerful Emperor, a
well-tried and humble Christian, the faithful ally and beloved
friend of our King, the friend of our nation, the benefactor of
our country and of all Europe, known to each of us, revered,
beloved, and now mourned by the whole world 1" The
Emperor Francis declared that he had lost his best friend.
But the warmest eulogiums of the deceased prince were
echoed by high and low amongst all shades of political opinion
in France. The speech of Charles X. at the opening of the
Legislative Chamber, January 31st, began with an allusion to
the event : " Death has just struck down, in the middle of hia
career^ one of our most magnanimous allies ; this loss has

The Last Years of Alexander s Reiffn. 363

profoundly afBicted my heart/' The Due de Montmorenci
followed it up with a description of the benefits he had
bestowed on France: ''AH the interests of humanity were
dear and sacred to the generous heart of Alexander. He has
given an example to monarchs in peace, to the world in
generosity, in disinterestedness, in services to Prance. Poetry,
eloquence, and history will render grateful and immortal
praises to his memory." The old soldier of Napoleon, Mar-
mont, writes, " The death of Alexander is a great event when
we think of the manner in which Europe was accustomed to
be guided by him. He made use of the magic of a moral
power founded on his numerous armies, always ready to enter
upon a campaign organized and furnished with everything as
if they were to fight the next day ; of the prestige which
necessarily accompanies States so extensive and composed of
the seventh part of the surface of the continents of the
globe. To threaten often, to strike rarely, but with a sure
blow, in a manner which made an impression and left remem-
brances — this is the policy Alexander has followed during the
last years of his reign. In the ten years he has lived since
the second Restoration, he has governed the world and settled
the destinies of every people in Europe without engaging a
single man, and by the sole power of his name.'' " The great
reverses and great successes," writes Lamartine, " of his short
existence had made him the hero of the North and the
arbiter of Europe. He gave the example of brilliant virtues.
Liberty owed to him a great remembrance in Europe. History
will inscribe him among the few princes who reigned in
presence of God and of their conscience, and who piously
subordinated their own glory and their personal grandeur to
the glory and to the greatness of humanity. The character
of the reign of Alexander lies in its not being so much a
Russian reign as a European reign. France and Europe, for
a moment ungrateful, only rendered a tardy justice to his
virtues."

*' We must render homage," wrote the French press, " to
the character of the Emperor Alexander. No one could
make a more moderate use of a power which might have done
anything." The French country pastors sounded his praises
in their churches ; the peasants in Champagne, who had seen

#

/

V .

366 The Last Years of Alexander s Meign.

him at the head of his armies, and profited by his bounty,
offered up their humble prayers for the repose of his soul — a
circumstance perhaps without a parallel when it came from
the conquered for their conqueror. In England^ where he
was less known, one or two of the higher class of periodicals
gave him his due ; but he was loaded with abuse by the prin-
cipal organs of the Liberal press. One eminent leader* of that
party has, however, written that " for public and private virtues
he must ever rank among the best of princes. Endowed
with many accomplishments which would have distinguished
an individual in common life, he was indefatigable in his
attention to business. He was intrusted with power more
vast in its extent and more UDcontroUed than has fallen to
the lot of any other man in modern times ; and yet there
never was any monarch by whom power was less abused."
" He was wise, noble, and in all respects highly gifted,"
writes Count Munster. In Finland Professor Morgensteiu
delivered a discourse in his praise to the students at Abo ;
and this example was followed by Professor Wallensius, who
spoke in Swedish at Dorpat. Funeral services were celebrated
in his memory throughout all parts of his empire, not only
among the established Christian sects, but by the Raskolniks,
Fire-worshippers, Lamas, Mahometans, and Jews. At As-
trakhan 4000 Tartars assembled in a wide plain and united
their lamentations for his decease with a prayer for blessings
on his successor.

In the mean while Alexander's coffin was on its road from
Taganrog to its last resting-place in the citadel of St. Petersburg,
a di^tance of mc»re than 1000 miles. It lay in state in the
Cathedral before its departure, delayed by a violent hurricane
sweeping the steppes till January 9th ; and the day it set forth
several frozen corpses, found in the neighbourhood, were
brought into Taganrog; the funeral procession being more
than once stopped during the journey by furious gales and
the extreme cold. The hearse was preceded by a detachment
of Cossacks of the Don, each bearing a torch, who escorted it
over boundless plains of snow, over rivers, through swamps,
and the densest forests. The Emperor's coachman earnestly
entreated to be allowed to drive it, but was refused on the

* BtL88ell*8 Modem History of Europe.

Tlte Last Years of Alexanders Beign. 367

score that he was not of sufficient rank. He pleaded that
when the Imperial vehicle was once upset^ his Majesty had
said to him^ that if he did not become more careful he would
some day have to bring a shattered corpse back to St. Peters-
burg; but this reasoning was not admitted till he reached
the capital^ when Nicholas allowed him to take the reins once
more. No orders were given, and the nobles and corporate
bodies of every province received the august dead in the
mode they thought most fit ; and more honours were heaped
upon his inanimate form than he would ever willingly receive
in life. The order of march was invariably the same. At
nighty surrounded by wax lights, the coffin rested in a simple
village church or a gorgeous cathedral, to which numbers
resorted to pray for the dead man, while guards of honour
relieved each other at intervals. In many places crowds col-
lected, and took the horses out of the carriage to drag it
along ; at others the bishops and clergy met it at the entrance
to their dioceses. In Tula the nobility caused services for
his soul to be celebrated for six weeks, and during all that
time distributed food to the poor. The corporation of citizens
annulled debts to the extent of 30,000 francs, and at Kursk
they defrayed the cost of a dinner to 1000 peasants. On
February 2nd the corpse reached Moscow, and nearly the
whole population, in spite of the cold, met it three miles
outside the city, where it was transferred to a magnificent
funeral car, surmounted with the crowns of Russia, Poland,
Siberia, Georgia, Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea, brought
from the Treasury, and carried with it the rest of the way.
In Moscow it was lodged in the Old Cathedral, and solemnly
blessed by the Metropolitan; and the same at Novgorod.
At Tver the nobility and citizens distributed alms to the poor.
Two stages before it arrived at Czarco-Selo the procession
was stopped by the Empress-mother and Nicholas. The
coffin was opened in their presence, though the features were
no longer to be recognized, and after resting in the chapel of
the palace it arrived in St. Petersburg, March 18th. Every
bell in the city was ringing, and guns were fired from the for-
tress as the hearse, drawn by eight black horses, and followed
by two chargers which had carried the Emperor in France,
slowly made its way to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan,

3f)8 The Last Year a of Alexander a Eeiffn.

Ml _ _ _ ■ I - —I a r ^^^M-^i- I- iB-i-i^r-^ if

and there a guard of honour kept watch daj and nighty and
1700 wax tapers flamed round the bier; while during a week,
and twice every day, the clergy chanted the prayers for his
soul.

Several foreign princes had arrived some weeks earlier in
St. Petersburg, to be present at the funeral ceremony;
Prince William (now Emperor) of Prussia, the Empress's uncle
the Prince of Baden, the Archduke Ferdinand, the Princes of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Saxe- Weimar, Orange, and Wiirtem-
berg, and the old soldiers Jomini, Wellington, and Marmont.
The last solemnities took place on Saturday, March 25th,
when the coflSn was transferred by twenty-four general officers
from the Kazan Cathedral to the Church of St. Peter and St.
Paul, the 24th being purposely avoided as the day of Alex-
ander's accession ; and in spite of a heavy snow-storm and
bitter wind, an immense concourse of people assembled in the
streets, and exhibited much emotion, though four months had
elapsed since the national loss. The Archimandrite Fedotof
accompanied the coflBn from Taganrog, and all the clergy in
St. Petersburg preceded it to the fortress, stopping before the
Roman Catholic church and every place of worship of all
denominations to read a few prayers. Sixty pages carrying
torches walked on each side. The Empress-mother and her
daughter-in-law, with the young heir to the empire, followed
the procession in a carriage, but the Princes went on foot at
the head of an immense assembly of civil and military officers.
Among the spectators were the ex-Queens of Georgia and
Mingrelia. A tremendous discharge of artillery announced
when the dead was deposited in its final abode, an act ac-
companied in the Russian service by the words, " For dust thou
art and unto dust shalt thou return ;'* and at three o'clock
the black flag was taken down which had floated nearly
four months over the Winter Palace. Coustantine could
not be persuaded to come from Warsaw. He declared that
neither his health nor his spirits would permit him to attend
the ceremony. Alexander's coffin, inscribed with merely his
name, was laid next to his father's in the Imperial vault;
and by the end of three months that of the Empress Eliza-
beth was placed by its side, for she died at Belef, May
16th, on her way from Taganrog.

The Last Years of Alexander s Beign. 369

The forlorn widow> left alone to brood oyer her husband's
last illness^ never regained the strength she had lost during
her close attendance by his dying bed. She grew rapidly
worse^ and her physicians^ hoping a change of scene might
revive her spirits^ did not oppose her departure on May
8th^ though she seemed scarcely fit to bear the jonrney.
Oranienbaum was to be her future residence, and she in-
tended to remain on Prince Yolkonski^s'^ estate at Kaluga
till after the coronation in June. She asked the Empress-
Dowager to meet her at Kaluga ; '' My only desire/' she said^
*^ is to see once more the mother of the angel who has pre-
ceded me/' Some alarming symptoms appeared^ Prince
Volkonski wrote that she would be unable to proceed further
than Belef^ a small town in Toula, and thither the Empress-
Dowager hastened ; but although she reached Belef at six
A.M. of May 16th^ she found her daughter-in-law had quietly
expired in her sleep two hours before, as the post-mortem
examination showed, of a long-existing disease of the heart.
''This mournful event/' said the Imperial ukaz which an-
nounced it, '' has taken place after a long sickness both of
mind and body." Her corpse was conveyed to St. Peters-
burg, and entombed with great ceremony July 8rd.

Alexander's life was too active to enable him to add to
the list of royal authors, even if he had been so inclined,
but he bequeathed a commentary on the transactions of
1814 and 1815 to his successor, which, Nicholas told an
English nobleman in 1836, contained his brother's opinions
;and instructions, and that he always religiously adhered to
them. The papers found in his room at Taganrog after his
death comprised a list of the names of the principal con-
spirators, which had been long in his possession, and other
notes on their designs. His valet scdd he observed the
Emperor always take a paper out of his pocket and transfer
it to another when he chunged his coat, and a search was
made for it, believing it might be important, but it only
contained references to the Holy Scriptures and prayers for
special occasions. The Empress desired they should be buried
with him. His official documents. State records, and private

* Volkonski died im 1852 ; Wylie in 1853.

VOL. III. B B

370 2%e Last Years of Alexander s Beiffn.

aocounts^ most systematically arranged^ were easily found
in the palaces at St. Petersburg and Czarco-Selo^ and Nicho-
las confirmed his ministers in their posts, inth the exception
of Aratchaief* The empire had increased more in extent^
population^ commerce, and prosperity in his reign of twenty-
four years, than eyen in the much longer and much vaunted
periods of Catherine 11. and Peter the Great. It had changed
in the same time from a thoroughly Asiatic to a civilized
European Power. But the insurrection of December, 1825,
when the insurgents resolved to plunder St, Petersburg, gave
such alarm to the wealthy classes in Russia as in their eyes
to cast a shade on the Government which had nurtured it,
and converted even the Russian Uberal party into decided re-
actionists. The prisons, they said, had been made too com-
fortable — people liked to be shut up in them ; the criminal code
was so mild it no longer presented any terrors to crime;
whilst directing the thoughts of his people towards a con-
stitutional monarchy, Alexander had turned them into re-
publicans and revolutionists; even the censorship was so
lenient that, under the guise of fables, traitors were permitted
to slander the Sovereign himself. They said the privileges
he had bestowed on the lower orders had made the serfs
discontented ; education enabled the soldiers to read the cor-
rupt and revolutionary literature the conspirators had put
into their hands ; the translation of the Bible had induced
many to desert the National Church ; in fact, as an English
traveller* observes, "the poor were impervious to the bless-
ings Alexander would have conferred upon them, and the
higher orders were too seriously interested in the continua-
tion of existing abuse not to meet all his reforms with virulent
hostility ; but that he should have become himself the object
of rancour and personal animosity is a stain which can never
be effaced from the Russian name.'' The conspirators, how-
ever, formed but a small portion of the 55,000,000 who peopled
Russia, though they comprised no inconsiderable number of
youths of rank and talent ; and it is not surprising that,
pushed by these two extremes, the one for reaction, the other
for the subversion of the throne, and his empire farther
threatened by the Polish revolt in 1830, that Nicholas should

* Raikes'B Visit to Russia in 1827.

1/

I%e Last Tears of Alexander s Beiffn. 871

have rejected the path of reform -which had proved so thorny
to his predecessor^ and preferred to retain the more easily
sustained part of a despot in principle and deed.*

* Alexander is stated to hare travelled more than any prince or
general of ancient or modem times. His ministers, who were all older
than himself, and to whom Nicholas snoceeded, were, Nesselrode for
Foreign Affairs, Lanskoi of the Interior, Gancrine of the Finances (he
succeeded Gk)arief in 1823), Labanof Rostouski of Justice, Shishkov Edu-
cation and Religion, Admiral Mollar of the Navy, and General Tatischef
of War. Of the insurrection which inaugpirated liie new reign, Marmont
speaks with much indignation, though lumself educated in the midst of
revolution. " Planned first against a Sovereign who has worthily borne
the crown and raised so high the Russian name ; against Alexander, the
most philanthropical, the gentlest, the most benevolent of monarchs.
And who are the chiefs of this horrible enterprise, of which the first
consecjuence, in case of success, was the death of all the members of the
Imperial family P They were men loaded beyond measure with benefits
by the members of this august family. ... I was at St. Petersbnrg
during their trial. Never was inquiry made with more care, and never
step was more regular ; never were condemnations more just and better
merited. The Bmperor has commuted many penalties. ... If Nicholas
had, by an exaggeration of gentleness, pardoned all the culprits, it woxdd
have been thought a clemency infiuenced by fear. A reparation was
necessary towards society, a public satisfaction was requirea," Ac. — ^Mar-
mont 's Journey, 1826.

Five years aner Alexander's death, not a nobleman in St. Petersburg
would keep the anniversary otherwise than as a day of mourning.

THB BND.

LOHikOV:
B&TIX.IH EDWARDS AMD 00., PBIHTSBS, OHAVDOS ST&Uf^

OOTSHT OABDIM.

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